Digital BabiesFamily Nursing Partnership

Des O’Loan

ICT Strategy Manager

Health & Social Care Board

Project Background

• Family Nurse Partnership - voluntary home visiting

programme for first time young mums (and dads), aged 19

or under

• A specially trained family nurse visits the young mum

regularly, from early in pregnancy until the child is two years

old

• The programme aims to enable young mums to:

o Have a healthy pregnancy

o Improve their child’s health and development

o Plan their own futures and achieve their aspirations

• Western Trust pilot > Paper based forms used by Family Nurses

• Focus is on mother and child NOT data capture

• BUT… Paper forms quickly became unmanageable:

o Difficult to share data between Nurses and Nurse Supervisors

o Duplicate data re-keying

o Limited reporting

o Printed forms = distribution time and cost + hard to secure

o Fixed form layout

Trial and Error – Paper Forms

Original Paper Form

• Paper forms > Digital Pen technology

• Nurses liked convenience and unobtrusive nature of pens when with clients

• BUT… there were limitations:

o Recognition rates < 80% = lengthy manual forms verification process

o Purchase Cost - Pens nearly as expensive as Tablet technology to purchase!

o Support Cost for lost or broken pens

o Digital pens just capture the data – another application is required to:

o Automate the business processes

o Provide Reporting & Analysis

Digital Baby Steps

Digital Pen technology + Application

• Business process automation

• Shared data

• Reporting & Analysis

OR:

Microsoft Dynamics Application

• Design of forms to meet the programme needs

• Automation of business processes via workflow

• Ease of data sharing

• Reporting & Analysis

• Secure platform

• Delivered quickly at manageable cost

A New Approach – 2 Solutions Considered

• Application available under regional health licencing arrangements

• Off the shelf Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution + agile application

development platform = “customisation rather than development”

• Can extend with bespoke components, plug-ins, web resources etc.

• Centrally hosted = ability to re-use existing investment in Dynamics platform for other

scenarios and projects

Why Microsoft Dynamics?

• Iterative development approach + stakeholder input = better business outcomes

• Data security via role based access:

• Nurse Supervisors see all clients in their Health Trust

• Nurses see only their own clients

• Each of the five NI Health Trusts see only data pertaining to their clients

• 20 Customised Forms and 35 Standard Reports developed

• Mobile application developed on Resco platform, a third-party extension for Dynamics –

single development, multiple platform support for Android, iOS and Windows 8

• FNP programme’s business processes now electronically managed

Becoming a Digital Reality

Business Process

The programme has a business

process that is automated within

the Dynamics platform

Desktop View & Mobile View

Mobile Forms developed in HTML5.0

Desktop Forms have standard

Microsoft Dynamics look and feel

Original Paper Form

Desktop (Dynamics) Form

Windows 8 Mobile Form

Mobile Calendar View• 20 flexible FNP forms developed once

and supported on multiple platforms:

Android, iOS, Windows 8

• Intuitive & simple GUI design = less

obtrusive when nurses are with clients

• Supports off-line working

• Synchronises to server when network is

available. Always used off-line to enable

working where no Wi-Fi or 3G is

available

Mobile Solution (Resco)