Health services disconnected, survey states
Almost half of UK citizens say they or someone they know have experienced delays in care due to problems with disconnected patient data, according to new research by data integration platform provider, MuleSoft.
The Connected Consumer Report 2017 examined the quality and consistency of consumer experiences across various industry sectors. The report shows that only 23% of UK citizens think that healthcare services are suitably connected.
Guy Murphy, industry technology evangelist, MuleSoft said:
“Siloed data across multiple systems is preventing healthcare professionals from accessing and sharing information effectively. This is leading to operational inefficiency and risks in patient care. The delays in patient care highlighted in the 2017 Connected Consumer Report show how severe the impact of disconnected data and systems can be. For example, operations can be cancelled due to patient notes being inaccessible, patients can experience delays in getting test results as systems aren’t connected, and clinicians may not be able to get a full picture of the care a patient is receiving. However, these issues are avoidable by integrating the patient data across applications and systems. By focusing on creating a connected patient experience, the healthcare sector can significantly improve efficiency of care and deliver better outcomes.”
The report’s findings show a need for improved information sharing across the NHS across all services. A fully digitally integrated NHS is needed if organisation and administration burdens are to be reduced.
The report goes on to show that more than half of the respondents think that public services overall provide a disconnected experience. Public services were the worst of all the sectors surveyed in the report. Only 14% of UK citizens currently think that local government services are connected and just 11% think the same of central government services.
The survey commissioned by MuleSoft was independently carried out by Opinium Research and involved 2,006 UK adults.
“We are seeing a growing number of public services move online, driven by the need to reduce costs while improving the citizen experience. Yet the pace of change and the overall citizen experience greatly differs from department to department and region to region, due to data sitting in silos. Clearly, there is still work to be done to make these digital experiences effective. The challenge for many public services organisations is to bring multiple technologies and data together to create a cohesive citizen experience. This is no small undertaking for a sector mired with legacy technology and processes. Ultimately it will be those departments that successfully connect their applications, data and devices that will be able to deliver innovative services of real benefit to citizens,” Murphy added.
Written by Reece Armstrong
