Overview of Departments
Health Records
The Health records department is made up of approximately 70 staff across three sites, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Andover War Memorial Hospital and The Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. The service historically aimed to create, maintain, and store paper notes of all patients that come into contact with our Trusts outpatient and inpatient facilities. The department has evolved, all active notes are in the process of being scanned onto EDMS (Electronic Document Management System). Which will result in working in a more digital format.
EDMS is a digital system which enables clinicians to have immediate access to patient records, to store, manage and retrieve clinical documentation relating to the care of our patients. It aims to provide a single consolidated record where key documentation from our various clinical IT systems sits alongside content originally captured on paper in order to provide a more complete overview of our patients' clinical histories.
The health records staff are now responsible for providing visit folders for both inpatient and outpatient activity to capture any new paper documents created within the Trust. These are then returned to the Health Records department at which point the staff categorise each returned document to ensure they are scanned and then viewed in the correct section within the digital record.
EDMS
EDMS (Electronic Document Management System) and Scanning Rollout
EDMS is a system to store, manage and retrieve clinical documentation relating to the care of our patients. It aims to provide a single consolidated record where key documentation from our various clinical IT systems sits alongside content originally captured on paper in order to provide a more complete overview of our patients' clinical histories.
It can be likened to an Electronic Case note or Medical Record and, once fully implemented by the scanning rollout, will provide a number of benefits such as making clinical documentation more readily accessible as well as improving the resilience of our records to loss or damage.
https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/corporate-services/improvement/project-delivery/non-elective-care/edms
Within HHFT there are three Main Outpatient Departments situated within Winchester, Basingstoke, and Andover hospitals.
These departments provide a vital role within the healthcare system, facilitating initial consultations, follow up care, diagnostic tests, and minor treatments, while acting as a gateway to a wider range of healthcare services when necessary.
When you arrive at the hospital you have the option of using our self-check-in kiosks. By scanning the barcode on your appointment letter or entering your demographic details manually, this provides a fast and efficient way to check in for your appointment. Within our Outpatient settings, we also have teams of receptionist, administrative staff and volunteers who will be happy to help you or provide you with directions.
Assistance Dogs
Assistance dogs are specially trained dogs working with an individual person to support them in a number of ways. These include:
• Guide dogs: supporting people with visual impairment or sight loss with guiding.
• Hearing dogs: supporting people with hearing loss or impairment.
• Assistance dogs: aiding mobility and support daily living such as undressing and picking dropped items up off the floor, opening and closing doors etc.
• Medical alert dogs: trained to constantly monitor their partner’s health condition and alert to impending episodes where their health would acutely deteriorate. Syndrome.
• Autism assistance dogs: supporting people with autism.
• Dogs supporting people who have mental health issues.
Dogs that are registered with a visiting AAI dog organisation. These dogs are pet dogs which have been assessed by a visiting AAI dog organisation (eg, Pets as Therapy) and are accompanied by their owners who are registered volunteers with the organisation.
Dogs trained specifically for AAI in health care settings. These are specially trained dogs and highly trained handlers who are part of an organisation providing AAI services.
If a patient requires a dog in attendance for an outpatient appointment, this must be the last appointment of the session to allow for deep cleaning.
Patients pet dogs are not permitted to enter the hospital, except in exceptional circumstances.
Additional Information
Wheelchairs are available to use situated at the main entrance.
Bariatric Patients – Please notify the department prior to the appointment.
Patient Transport is provided by SCAS (South Central Ambulance Service) or a volunteer service.
Transport is not booked by the outpatients department.
Interpreters including BSL available with prior notice.
Medical photography, also referred to as clinical photography, is sometimes used as a visual method of recording patients’ conditions. The photographs can be used for diagnosis or for documenting a patient’s condition during various stages of their treatment.
Clinical photographers are qualified professional healthcare scientists specialising in the photography of patients. They work to standardised guidelines, protocols and codes of conduct set out by the NHS and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and are registered medical illustrators on the Academy of Healthcare Science (AHCS) register.
Clinical images (photographs or video) can be included in a patient’s health care record and may be used for diagnosis, monitoring the patient’s condition and/or planning further treatment. These images may also be used for clinical teaching or education but only with the patient’s appropriate level of consent.
The Access to Health Team is responsible for recording and processing requests for personal data on individuals that have come into contact with Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust.
Individuals have the right to request to view or have copies of any personal data relating to them that the Trust holds. The request can be made by a patient or a patient’s representative this is referred to as a “Subject Access Request” (SAR) and can be made through our online portal, verbally, or in writing, including through social media.
When a request for copies of information is received, the Access to Health team will process the request following department guidelines based on GDPR and the Health Records Policy. These requests must be normally be completed within one calendar month from confirmation of all relevant ID and authorisation checks , but this can vary depending on the size and complexity of the request.
In addition to Subject Access Requests, the team record and respond to requests for information from the police, the department of work and pensions, insurance companies, and members of the public wishing to see information relating to a deceased person, all of which have different criteria and requirements that need to be met before release.
The number of requests for information has been increasing each year, however with the ongoing digitisation of Health records and the use of electronic transfer of documents we are able to keep pace with the demand.
Any requests received by clinicians requiring information to continue current patient treatment are passed to the appropriate speciality for action.
If you receive a SAR, you must forward it to the appropriate team immediately.
Animals & Pets in a healthcare setting https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/download_file/21535/182
Medical Photography & Illustration https://www.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/our-services/az-departments-and-specialties/medical-photography-and-illustration
FCSS Management Team https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/download_file/21536/182
Access to interpreting and advocacy services https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/corporate-services/PALS-and-complaints/translation-services
SCAS Transport for patients
https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/download_file/18789/182
Health Records
2024 Standard Operating Procedure for Notification of Deceased https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/download_file/20376/182
Standard Operating Procedure for Requesting visit folders for day forward loose filing
Clinical Photography Policy
https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/download_file/198/182
Consulting Facilities Local Induction
OPD Flow Management SOP
https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/download_file/6460/182
OPD Queue Management SOP
https://trustnet.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/download_file/6461/182
