Nottingham University Hospital Trust is deploying its customised CNodes reporting solution across 15 specialist tumour departments to improve data quality and provide increased visibility of patient pathways for all areas of cancer care.

Staff will now have greater visibility of the entire patient pathway from initial referral to eventual outcome. The solution provides further details on treatment as well as the key stages on the pathways, to ensure the trust meets RTT government targets for cancer care.

Using reporting software from business intelligence specialist Ardentia as a platform, the Trust has built the CNodes solution to run alongside its existing in-house cancer waiting time system, consolidating individual cancer site databases into a centralised, secure system for improved reporting and statistics.

The centrally maintained solution allows staff and clinicians to input greater quantities of patient data through drop-down menus rather than inputting manually, saving valuable staff and resource time and ensuring that data is accurate. By inputting more detail on patient progress, Nottingham is also pre-empting future national reporting requirements.

Patient information was previously stored in patient notes and local individual databases across various departments but as the CNodes solution is web-based, clinicians can now access data from any location, enabling them to spend more time treating patients.

Jill Weller, Business Change Manager at Nottingham University Hospitals' Cancer Centre said: "With Ardentia's support, we have been able to create a bespoke solution that meets our specific trust requirements. It provides each cancer team with the flexibility to input data their own way and in their own time, to improve data quality and therefore quality of care, and provide more timely reporting for annual audits.

"Feedback from staff in head and neck - the first tumour department to go live - has been extremely positive. While there is still a long way to go, the software is at the point of being rolled out across the sites and new forms are continually being added to increase functionality as requested by teams."

Gary Luke, Ardentia Managing Director, added: "Better quality data - and more of it - is key to improving care delivery and outcomes for patients. We have worked closely with Nottingham to develop a customised version of our reporting solution, which meets their specific trust needs and has enhanced transparency and access to patient data, helping to transform healthcare delivery."

The user-friendly solution requires little training and all individuals within a team are able to enter their own particular information about a patient to provide a better view of all sections of a patient's pathway. It has also become much easier for the clinicians to collect information for national audits such as Data for Head and Neck Oncology.

Nottingham's Multi-disciplinary teams (MDT) meet regularly to discuss patient care in detail, and any move towards improved patient information will enable the teams to make more informed decisions on patient treatment. Specialist MDT forms are also now being built into the CNodes solution with the first site of Upper Gastrointestinal already using it at MDT, and other sites to follow soon.

A separate MDT booking system is also due to be deployed to provide the Trust and other centres with the ability to log-in remotely and enter a patient for discussion at MDT. This new system integrates with the CNodes solution to share patient information in a real-time environment allowing more timely and informed decision-making.

www.ardentia.co.uk