Over the last few weeks, the following NHS Trusts have signed up to CIRIS for Compliance:

• Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Avon and Wiltshire Partnership NHS Trust
• Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
• Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
• Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

“With this level of uptake, it is fair to say that CIRIS is becoming the compliance solution of choice for the NHS”, says 3E’s managing director, Richard Brown. “When we were building the CIRIS platform, our overriding objective was to produce technology that would enable CIRIS to keep up with the pace of regulatory change over the long run. That’s what our customers really want and that’s what the traditionally built solutions are struggling to deliver.”

NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney Community Services signs up to CIRIS for CQC Registration. The organisation provides a wide range of adult, children’s services and specialist services both within Great Yarmouth and Waveney but also to patients in Norfolk and Suffolk.

The organisation will shortly be transferring its evidence to CIRIS and cross cataloguing this to the CQC Registration requirements. “Our previous software solution for managing evidence was complicated and difficult to use”, said Julie Smith, Head of Quality and Governance. “We went back to the drawing board and started to look for alternatives that were both more efficient and robust. We were extremely impressed not only with the capabilities of CIRIS but also the price!”.

We will be launching an expanded version of CIRIS for NICE Compliance at this year's NICE Conference. CIRIS for NICE Compliance forms part of our suite of solutions for compliance with regulations in UK health and social care.

“Compliance with NICE Guidance will have increased prominence in the new CQC Registration system that comes into effect on 1 April 2010”, says Richard Brown, 3E Europe’s Managing Director. “The implications for organisational compliance systems are significant, and CIRIS for NICE Compliance will be a timely solution”.

NICE 2009 is taking place on 2-3 December at the Central Convention Complex in Manchester - please come and see us on stand number 1!

For full details of NICE 2009, see:
http://www.nice2009.co.uk

The theme for our stand at the NHS Governance Conference will be Compliance Made Lean ™

Compliance Made Lean ™ is a combination of software from 3E and consultancy from our partners designed to bring lean principles to the business process of compliance itself - Compliance Made Lean ™ takes the bureaucracy out of compliance and puts improvement back in!

To find out more about Compliance Made Lean ™, see:
http://www.3e.co.uk/email/sales/Compliance%20Made%20Lean.pdf

We will be exhibiting CIRIS at this year's NHS Governance Conference which is taking place on 23-25 June at Earls Court Conference Centre in London - please come and see us on our stand!

For full details of NHS Governance 2009, see:
http://www.emapconferences.co.uk/nhsgovernance/index.jsp

Camden PCT Provider Services signs up to CIRIS under a five year agreement enabling all of their staff to have access to CIRIS. CIRIS will be used to support the running of the organisation to best practice standards.

The organisation is a leading provider of community health services in Camden and surrounding London boroughs. Their professional teams care for people at every stage of life: from new-born babies to people reaching the end of their lives. Their services include nationally-renowned sexual health services, as well as powerful support for people with complex disabilities.

To read the Case Study, see:
http://www.3e.co.uk/email/sales/CamdenPCTCaseStudy.pdf

For further information about Camden PCT Provider Services, see:
http://www.camdenproviderservices.nhs.uk/

The theme for our stand at the NICE 2008 conference will be NICE Compliance.

In a recent interview reported in the Health Service Journal, Care Quality Commission chair Baroness Young pledged to crack down on NHS organisations that failed to adopt NICE guidance. Sanctions mentioned included marked-down annual assessment ratings and lower pay.

To find out more about NICE Compliance with CIRIS, see:
http://www.3e.co.uk/email/sales/nice%20compliance.pdf

We will be exhibiting CIRIS at this year's NICE Conference which is taking place on 3-4 December at the Central Convention Complex in Manchester - please come and see us on stand number 1!

For full details of NICE 2008, see:
http://www.nice2008.co.uk

Our new web site is now live at www.3e.co.uk

We recommend that from now on, all CIRIS users login via the web site rather than using any previously bookmarked links.

To login:
- visit http://www.3e.co.uk
- bookmark the site (add it to your Favorites)
- select the Login button at the top right of the page
- select either 'CIRIS for Healthcare', 'CIRIS Corporate' or 'CIRIS Radiology' as appropriate
- login with your usual Username and Password

While you're there, feel free to browse around the new web site, and while we don't expect there to be any issuse, please let us know if you encounter any login problems.

The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust signed a long-term agreement to CIRIS today.

The Trust serves a population of around 500,000 and has a turnover of £200m. It employs over 4,000 members of staff across two hospital services and the community and has 900 beds and 18 theatres. The Trust provides district wide elective services for orthopaedics, cardiology, vascular, urology and ophthalmology.

The Trust appears regularly in the top quartile of acute trusts for patient safety, access times, use of resources and infection control and received a 'Good' for its quality of services and 'Excellent' for Use of Resources as part of the Healthcare Commission’s Annual Healthcheck.

The Trust is one of five Foundation Trusts that have been shortlisted for Acute Organisation of the Year by Health Service Journal as part of its 2008 annual awards, the winner of which will be announced in December.

For further information about the Trust, see:
http://www.rbch.nhs.uk

This month sees the addition of the World Class Commissioning standards following their publication by the Department of Health.

“There are currently 700 continuously maintained regulatory schemes is CIRIS with over 12,000 criteria”, said Ian Brown, 3E’s Director of Customer Services. “This latest development is all part of our approach to ensuring that our customers get access to the latest relevant standards for their business”.

This month sees the addition of Use of Resources standards following their publication by the Audit Commission. Designed for PCTs, local authorities, fire and rescue authorities, and police authorities, the standards replace the Auditors Local Evaluation for PCTs.

“With the inclusion of these standards, our existing customers will now be able to cross reference their existing evidence portfolio to these new standards with comparative ease”, said Ian Brown, 3E’s Director of Customer Services.

Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust signs up to the latest generation CIRIS for the long term.

Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust was formed in April 1999 and provides acute healthcare to a population of 229,000 located within West Lancashire and Southport and Formby. The Trust employs approximately 2,500 whole time equivalent staff and has a bed compliment of 530 inpatient beds and 50 day case beds.

The Trust was awarded the highest level under the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (now NHSLA) for both general medical and surgical services and for the separate category of maternity services and are one of only three Hospitals in England to have achieved this.

For the fifth year running, Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust has been named among the top performers in the country’s sixth 40 Top Hospitals programme assessed by the country’s leading hospital benchmarking company, CHKS. The Trust is the only one on Merseyside to be among this year’s 40 Top Hospitals, and one of only three from Cheshire & Merseyside Strategic Health Authority.

For further information about the Trust, see:
http://www.southportandormskirk.nhs.uk

North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust signs up to the latest generation CIRIS today.

With a workforce of 2,000 members of staff, the Trust provides mental health and substance misuse services to a population of one million people in north Essex, serving around 17,000 people each year.

The Trust is one of the leading trusts in the provision of mental health services in the UK. It was the first mental health service to achieve the NHS Litigation Authority’s (NHSLA) level two standards for risk management and patient safety and was recently rated by the Healthcare Commission as ‘Excellent’ for its services and ‘Good’ for use of resources.

For further information about the Trust, see:
http://www.nemhpt.nhs.uk

Richmond and Twickenham Primary Care Trust (PCT) is responsible for health services in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The PCT shares its boundaries with the borough of Richmond, serving over 177,000 residents.

The PCT coordinates the funding for 31 GP practices and 171 GPs, 46 Community Pharmacies, 36 Dental Practices and 7 NHS Opticians, as well as hospital services and services provided by the PCT such as health visiting, district nursing, therapists and specialist services.

For further information about the Trust, see:
http://www.richmondandtwickenham.nhs.uk

Dudley Primary Care Trust signed up to CIRIS today.

Dudley Primary Care Trust covers the Borough of Dudley and provides services to approx 300,000 residents. The Trust area covers 56 general GP practices and 40 dental surgeries, 40 ophthalmic premises, 60 pharmacy premises and we directly employ more than 1800 people, (headcount) over 900 of whom provide community based healthcare across 27 nursing teams, and over 600 provide mental health and learning disability services across the borough.

For further information about the Trust, see:
http://www.dudley.nhs.uk

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust (formerly Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust) is one of the largest and busiest children's hospitals in Europe. The Trust has a world class reputation for saving the lives of sick children and a proud history of medical achievement and clinical innovation. It is an international centre of excellence, treating more than 200,000 children a year.

For further information about the Trust, see:
http://www.alderhey.com

South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust signed up to latest generation CIRIS today.

The South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust was established in April 2002, and provides specialist mental health and learning disability services across Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield.

The Trust is one of the largest specialist mental health NHS Trusts in the country serving almost 1 million people.

For further information about the Trust, see:
http://www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk

The Community Services Unit (CSU) of Warrington Primary Care Trust signed up to CIRIS today.

The CSU operates arms-length from the PCT and provides a range of community services including Children's, Younger People's and Family Services and Adult and Specialist Community Services. It has approximately 850 staff and an operating budget of £18m.

For further information about the Trust, see:
http://www.warrington-pct.nhs.uk/servicedelivery.htm

With the development programme now in its final stages, we are pleased to announce 22 June as the date scheduled for the first release of the Next Generation CIRIS.

Based on revolutionary database technology developed under the DTI SMART programme, the release of the Next Generation service will mark the next level in compliance management with a substantial increase in the coverage of regulations and the introduction of significant new modules including an integrated risk register, enhanced evidence cataloguing, facilities for document control, and support for health and safety risk assessments.

Existing users will be advised shortly of the arrangements for upgrading to the new service.

Following a major survey of our users last month, consultations with our development sites and a recent review of the results, CIRIS Healthcare has finalised its plans for developing CIRIS beyond the current generation.

It was about this time last year that the CIRIS compliance management service was launched. Since that time over 100 NHS Trusts in England have joined. About the same time, we started design work on what we call ‘the Next Generation CIRIS’.

The term ‘Next Generation’ reflects what it is intended to be – a significant advance designed to take compliance management to the next level. The Next Generation will be enabled by a major platform re-engineering effort that we initiated more than three years ago under a prestigious DTI SMART award for technological innovation and that is now approaching completion.

The Next Generation is scheduled for release later this year. We will ensure as far as is practicable that existing data will be automatically ported to the new platform. The details of the migration will be reported closer to the time of release. Volume based pricing will be introduced to facilitate wider organisational roll-out.

We would like to offer particular thanks to all of our users who participated in the survey and look forward to being able to deliver effective solutions to the issues that they have raised.

In response to user demand, the Health Auditors Local Evaluation (ALE) Standards are now included in CIRIS. This standard forms the use of resources assessment for NHS Trusts and PCTs within the Healthcare Commission’s annual health check assessment in 2005/6.

CIRIS users will now be able to carry out compliance assessments, manage evidence, assess risk and plan actions for ALE in the same way as they do for Standards for Better Health, CNST, NHSLA RMS and NICE guidance. The extension of the standards set to ALE reaffirms CIRIS as the most comprehensive compliance management solution for healthcare.

In line with our commitment to maintaining content, the following versions of CNST and NHSLA have been incorporated into CIRIS:
- CNST Maternity Standards (Nov 2005)
- CNST Mental Health and Learning Disability (Nov 2005)
- NHSLA RMS for Ambulance Services (Nov 2005)

Changes of this nature can be very disruptive for users, requiring re-entry of standards, evidence and action plans. The change management capabilities of CIRIS ensure that evidence and action plans associated with the earlier versions continue to be accessible, giving users a smooth transition to new versions of existing standards.

Using the latest release of CIRIS – available from today – 12 Sep 2005 – users can now produce the report needed for the draft declaration report.

This report follows the format set out by the Healthcare Commission in their recent document – 'The Annual health Check – Guidance on the assessment of Core Standards'.

The report uses the HCC format for reporting compliance to each core standard:
- Compliance
- Not met
- Insufficient Assurance

The report also includes:
- General Statement of Compliance
- SHA Commentary
- Public and Patient involvement commentary
- Overview and scrutiny committee commentary

In response to user demand, today sees the extension of CIRIS to include all NICE guidance – comprising 300 clinical guidelines, interventional procedures and technology appraisals.

CIRIS users are now able to carry out compliance assessments, manage evidence, assess risk and plan actions for NICE guidance in the same way as they do for Standards for Better Health, CNST and NHSLA RMS.

CIRIS is now the most comprehensive governance management service available to healthcare providers across England. From 1st August 2005, the following national standards are now LIVE and immediately available in CIRIS:

- Standards for Better Health

- CNST
- General Acute
- Maternity
- Mental Health and Learning Disability

- NHS Risk Management
- Primary Care Trusts
- Ambulance Trusts

All the standards are fully integrated into CIRIS giving you one simple way of managing and reporting on your compliance activities across the whole of the trust.

This is alongside the ability to add your own local standards and assurance registers live into CIRIS.

CIRIS is simple and easy to use and you can be up and running in a matter of hours. CIRIS will support your compliance work for the years ahead.

Using CIRIS demonstrates that you are in control of your compliance process and ensures you have instant access to your compliance reports, action plans and evidence.

CIRIS Healthcare will be exhibiting at this year's UK Radiological Congress which is taking place on 6-8 June at the G-Mex in Manchester.

Come and see us on stand number 620!

Getting the right advice and guidance when implementing a guideline or conforming to a regulation is critical. Valuable time can be wasted inventing your own solution and poor advice can lead to mistakes.

The IR(ME)R Service User Forum has been designed to help users seek guidance and share ideas across the CIRIS community. CIRIS is very pleased to announce that you can now elect to have your messages and replies reviewed by the radiation team at the NRPB. This means that you can now discuss key issues directly with the experts involved, saving time and promoting good ways of working.

CIRIS is very pleased to announce the launch of the SIGN Service as the latest enhancement to CIRIS. The SIGN Service will be available to all users from Wednesday 2nd March. This will include the latest SIGN Guideline – SIGN 80: Management of patients with lung cancer. To access the service, log into CIRIS and click on the Guidelines tab.

Using this service, you will be able to reduce the time and paperwork necessary to track levels of compliance to the guidelines and report on the action plans necessary to ensure compliance is maintained. David Kirk from CIRIS says “The goal of CIRIS is to help reduce the burden of compliance across the whole of the service. The new SIGN Service will replace a multitude of paper and electronic files with one simple, easy to use service. It will include message forums in which users can exchange ideas and information.”

National resource for modernising diagnostic services in Scotland.

CIRIS is very pleased to announce that NHS QIS (Quality Improvement Scotland) are extending their support for the roll out of CIRIS across the Radiology service in Scotland with direct funding for an additional six months.

The CIRIS Liaison Board is now working with Chief Executives, the radiology community and a number of other groups to use CIRIS to support the modernisation of diagnostic services across Scotland.

Prof Donald Hadley, Chair of the CIRIS Liaison Board, says “The involvement of QIS further supports the roll out of CIRIS as a national resource to inform policy and help with particular aspects of waiting lists, waiting times and overall service audit.”

David Kirk, Business Development Director of CIRIS, says “We are very pleased with this support from NHS QIS. Working in partnership with the CIRIS Liaison Board, the goal of CIRIS is to ensure the whole community has access to the information they need to inform the modernisation of the service and to reduce the burden of complying with the regulations and guidelines that exist.”

Contact us for further information:

e: info@cirishealthcare.com
t: 01223 421 148
f: 01223 421 149

CIRIS is pleased to announce the launch of a new service to help streamline the management and reporting on compliance with SIGN guidelines. The new service will be available to CIRIS subscribers from mid February at no extra cost.

CIRIS is pleased to announce the launch of the first service that reduces the burden of producing and monitoring elements of the declaration report that will be required by the Healthcare Commission to demonstrate your compliance to the Standards for Better Health.

The new service draws upon a single electronic source of compliance information to give you real time reporting on your level of compliance and the status of action plans. The service includes a systematic approach that guides you through each level of assessment, collecting the evidence required for the declaration report.

The new service also includes on line forums through which you can share ideas and knowledge on compliance with other users.

In support of Agenda for Change, the Personnel service in CIRIS now supports job descriptions, helping to reduce the time and burden of building and maintaining a comprehensive database of your staff.

As you would expect of CIRIS, it is fully integrated with the other services, such as Training, making CIRIS the single source of information for who is in the department, what posts they hold, what their job descriptions are and what training they have undertaken. All ready for inspection and audit, any time!

For full details and a demonstration, please contact us:

e: info@cirishealthcare.com
t: 01223 421 148
f: 01223 421 149

The message forums in CIRIS are now up and running and in the last release we made some additions to help you navigate around.

The message boards provide you with a valuable resource to support each other.

The DoH Radiation Team made particular mention of them when they first saw the IR(ME)R Service in action - “This development is to be welcomed by everyone in the service. Our experience is that sites that share their experiences generally are better at complying with the IR(ME)R requirements”

Additions to the Training Service will further help you to reduce the burden of managing and tracking training, whether for your own records or to satisfy an inspector, such as CNST, IR(ME)R or for IRR. These enhancements are contained in over a 100 updates available in the latest release.

"Does the hospital comply" - get the answer in seconds.

"Who is responsible and what needs to be done" - get the answer in minutes.

... by using CIRIS to help manage the work to ensure and maintain compliance across the whole of the trust ...

CIRIS subscribers tell us that the IR(ME)R Service provides a common structure and control to help ensure the regulations get implemented across the whole trust as compliance is not the sole responsibility of the radiology department (the IRR Service has been designed to work in the same way).

To help make this work easier and quicker, we have added in a series of standard reports for everyone to use. Use the Compliance Report in the IR(ME)R Service to answer do we comply. Go to Monitoring and use the standard reports to answer who is responsible.

The CIRIS - IRR 1999 [IRR (NI) 2000] Service is available now in CIRIS and will compliment the recently released IR(ME)R Service.

The Service is available at no extra cost, and further demonstrates the commitment of CIRIS to ensuring members have access to the services they need to meet their governance obligations.

This new service works alongside the IR(ME)R Service, in helping departments save time and make better use of precious resources when complying with both sets of regulations. CIRIS helps departments manage and prioritise the duplication and overlap that exists between the regulations.

CIRIS in Northern Ireland (13/10/04) "Very helpful and stimulating" "Good Overview"

CIRIS IRMER – Discussion Group (18/10/04) "excellent" "good range of speakers" (CME points awarded)

CIRIS Yorkshire & North East (17/12/04) Call for agenda and booking details

CIRIS Scotland (13/1/05) call for agenda and booking details

If you would like to suggest an event, please call. The points raised at each event will be fed back using the user forums in CIRIS.

The CIRIS user forums have been expanded into more areas to help you keep in contact with other users. The way you access forums has also been improved.

For example, to see the topics being discussed in the IR(ME)R Service, click on Regulations and select either the 'Service Forum Report' or the 'Clause Forum Report'.

Topics currently being discussed include
- fealing with electronic requests
- reviewing IVU Protocols
- IR(ME)R and Research Projects
- identifying referrers outside the trust

To learn how to post a message or reply, contact us to arrange a 10 minute briefing:

e: info@cirishealthcare.com
t: 01223 421 148
f: 01223 421 149

“Does the hospital comply” – get the answer in seconds.

“Who is responsible and what needs to be done” – get the answer in minutes.

... by using CIRIS to help manage the work to ensure and maintain compliance across the whole of the trust ...

CIRIS users tell us that the IR(ME)R Servie provides a common structure and control to help ensure the regulations get implemented across the whole trust as compliance is not the sole responsibility of the radiology department (the IRR Service has been designed to work in the same way).

To help make this work easier and quicker, we have added in a series of standard reports for everyone to use. Use the Compliance Report in the IR(ME)R Service to answer 'do we comply'. Go to Monitoring and use the standard reports to answer 'who is responsible'

“Very useful”,

“Streamlines records”,

“ user friendly”,

“ less data entry”,

“ reports very useful”,

“ good to have centralised records”,

“good management tool”,

“CIRIS is an excellent tool”,

“Equipment management impressive”

Additions to the Training Service will further help you to reduce the burden of managing and tracking training, whether for your own records or to satisfy an inspector, such as CNST, IR(ME)R or for IRR. These enhancements are contained in over a 100 updates available in the latest release.

The CIRIS user forums have been expanded into more areas to help you keep in contact with other users. The way you access forums has also been improved.

For example, to see the topics being discussed in the IR(ME)R Service, click on Regulations and select either the 'Service Forum Report' or the 'Clause Forum Report'.

Topics currently being discussed include:
- Dealing with electronic requests
- reviewing IVU Protocols
- IRMER and Research Projects
- identifying referrers outside the trust

To learn how to post a message or reply, contact us to arrange a 10 minute briefing:

e: info@cirishealthcare.com
t: 01223 421 148
f: 01223 421 149

The CIRIS - IR(ME)R Service will be available on line to all CIRIS Members as from 6th September 2004. The IR(ME)R Service is available at no extra cost and further demonstrates the commitment of CIRIS to ensuring members have access to the services they need to meet their governance obligations. The IR(ME)R Service, designed in direct consultation with radiology departments, is focussed on reducing the time and effort to meet your department's statutory obligations and to ensure it is done in a structured and controlled manner.

This new CIRIS Service will help departments save time and make better use of precious resources in implementing IR(ME)R. The Service ensures that IR(ME)R is implemented in a thorough and consistent manner – assuring safe use of ionising radiations throughout the service. The IR(ME)R Service helps you plan for the day of inspection in a systematic manner and then supports the ongoing commitment – helping to make IR(ME)R part of day to day working.

The IR(ME)R Service includes a dedicated electronic User Forum facility that links all users together so they can share advice and experiences of preparing for and going through an IR(ME)R inspection and then living with IR(ME)R on a daily basis – again, helping to save time and establish best practices.

Professor Anne Hemingway, Chairman, Trust Radiation Safety Committee, of Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, who was involved in aspects of the design of the Service, says - “The IR(ME)R Service is an excellent tool for all directorates and departments that utilise ionising radiation as well as for the Trust/Employer. Using it makes the work to assess compliance and monitoring the responsibilities for ensuring ongoing compliance clear, visible and understood to everyone. It sends out a clear signal to the inspectors that IR(ME)R is taken seriously”.

After looking at the Service in action the DoH Radiation Team commented - "This development is to be welcomed by everyone in the service. Our experience is that sites that share their experiences generally are better at complying with the IR(ME)R requirements - the electronic User Forums will directly support this." CIRIS will now work with the DoH team to ensure that the reports directly produced by CIRIS are consistent with information required for proactive inspections.

Dr Paul Dubbins from the CIRIS Governing Board added - "The launch of the IR(ME)R Service for CIRIS is a major milestone for this collaborative project. It exemplifies the value of this service in departmental management. The core of CIRIS is to act as a reliable source of information and provide a record of actions both planned and executed. Of enormous value in delivering aspects of clinical governance CIRIS now offers a management tool for effective IR(ME)R compliance."

In conjunction with the launch of the IR(ME)R Service, CIRIS is very pleased to announcing the formation of the CIRIS IR(ME)R Discussion Group. The Discussion Group will give all users the opportunity to exchange experience and ideas on complying with IR(ME)R and using CIRIS.

The CIRIS - IR(ME)R Discussion Group will meet on the 18th October 2004 at the Royal College of Radiologists.

The Discussion Group is hosted by CIRIS, but it is driven by the community. At the first meeting there will be presentations on user’s experiences of preparing for inspection, the day of inspection, living with IR(ME)R and the trust wide view. The session will also have an opportunity to discuss hot topics such as training and entitlement, referral lists and research projects and a workshop to see the IR(ME)R Service live in operation.

The Discussion Group is open to all CIRIS members and is included in your membership. The Discussion Group will serve as a focal point for discussions and will use the electronic User Forum boards built into CIRIS to ensure its members can meet ‘virtually’ and exchange ideas at any time.

Places will be limited, so for more information and to book aplace, please contact us:

e: info@cirishealthcare.com
t: 01223 421 148
f: 01223 421 149

The IR(ME)R Service will be automatically available from the 6th September 2004.

The launch of the service will also coincide with the roll out of a new training programme – aimed at making better use of your time and your staff’s time when being trained.

Training will take place in one hour slots using a live internet connection and a teleconference

To find out more about the IRMER Service, to book your training slot or arrange a demonstration, contact us:

e: info@cirishealthcare.com
t: 01223 421 148
f: 01223 421 149

CIRIS continues to capture the attention of those involved in the delivery of diagnostic imaging services. CIRIS Radiology has been designed to make the management of clinical governance visible across the department. New members who recognise the benefits in using CIRIS include:

- Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
- Hull & East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
- The Walton Centre for Neurology & Neurosurgery NHS Trust
- Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
- Royal Liverpool Childrens' Hospital NHS

The use of management tools such as CIRIS is one of the recommendations from the Imaging Review carried out by the Shropshire and Staffordshire Strategic Health Authority.

The Strategic Health Authority and Shropshire and Staffordshire Chief Executives have recognised the importance of diagnostic imaging services in a recently published Imaging Review report. Diagnostic Imaging is a key component of the patient pathway for both planned care and unplanned care, and as such impacts on the experience of patients as they use the health services, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency with which care can be delivered, and the degree to which specific targets are delivered.

The Imaging Review, chaired by Dr Richard Mason, has looked at a wide range of imaging services provided by the NHS such as x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, ultrasound and computed tomography (CT) scans. A framework and development programme to improve imaging services, and access to imaging services, over an initial three year timeframe has been set out. Recommendations and proposals include the launch of a No Waits Imaging Department whereby patients will be able to pre-book convenient appointments instead of waiting for a given time and date, providing easy access to services.

The CIRIS Governing Board met on the 25th March 2004. A wide ranging agenda covered many items, including a discussion on how the Governing Board will be structured to support the ongoing development of CIRIS and its uptake across the radiology service. New members to the board were welcomed - Maureen Richardson, Dorothy Evans and Alison Womack – who will directly support the editorial board led by Dr Sue Barter. The editorial board is keen to recruit new members from both the Radiologist and Radiographer community.

The CIRIS Scottish Liaison Board (CSLB) reported that the recent data collection exercise has been successfully completed with a final report being presented to the Scottish Executive. Plans are now in place for a second exercise in May 2004. It was also reported that SIGN, (Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network) have agreed to allow their clinical guidelines to be incorporated into CIRIS.

The board thanked Dr Peter Cavanagh who stepped down as Chair at the last meeting and Ann Cattell who stepped down at this meeting. The Board noted that CIRIS will once more be present at UKRC, the stand being set up to allow live demonstrations of the system to everyone attending the conference in Manchester this June.

The CIRIS Risk Assessments module helps you to manage all types of risk (general risks, location risks and COSHH substances), to store any template risk documents and to catalogue your risk level codes. It has been designed to help reduce the burden and time required to manage such issues across the whole of the department, collecting evidence of compliance and coordinating action plans.

For CIRIS users, guidance on what the module can be used for is accessible from the CIRIS News page, which is automatically displayed whenever you login to CIRIS. Select the News Item “CIRIS launches the COSHH and Risk Assessment Module. Read how it works...” then select “Download File”.

Everyone at CIRIS Healthcare wishes Ann Cattell a long and well deserved retirement following her distinguished radiography career.

Ann worked in clinical practice as a radiotherapy radiographer at Leicester and Kings College Hospital before being appointed Group Superintendent Radiographer for the Royal Marsden Hospitals in 1974.

In1988 Ann became Assistant Director of the Health Education Authority.

In 1990 she returned to managing care and services for cancer patients at the Royal Marsden Hospitals until seconded to direct the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund Project, improving care and services for people affected by cancer in the community.

Finally in 2000, to crown a distinguished career, Ann took up the challenging role of Chief Executive of the Society and College of Radiographers until on her retirement March 31st 2004. I am sure Ann looks forward to enjoy being a great aunt to “three small persons” and perhaps to get a lot more scuba dives in – her other great love!

As an active member of the Council of the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR), Ann took a particular interest in professional education, training and quality issues. It was therefore no surprise to all of us at CIRIS that she became so deeply involved with the CIRIS project from its earliest implementation. Until the day of her retirement she remained a member of the CIRIS Governing Board, a meeting of the Board being one of her last duties as SCoR Chief Executive.

Ann is an asset to any team for her incisive, intuitive and frank, determined contributions. The CIRIS Governing Board will miss her greatly and the radiographic profession is losing one of its great champions (but hopefully not quite entirely yet …).

Well done Ann. You’ve represented your profession in many capacities, as clinician, politician, manager and leader. In every role you’ve done the profession proud. CIRIS has benefited immensely from your support and advice.

Our best wishes to you in all your future roles. We doubt you are going into retirement quietly!

CIRIS continues to capture the attention of those involved in the delivery of diagnostic imaging services. CIRIS Radiology has been designed to make the management of clinical governance visible across the department.

New members who recognise the benefits in using CIRIS include:

- Papworth Hospital NHS Trust
- East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
- The Walton Centre for Neurology & Neurosurgery NHS Trust
- Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
- St Mary's NHS Trust

"CIRIS makes Clinical Governance issues visible and part of our day to day working.... Clinical Governance used to be mainly hidden from view - this resulted in staff not being involved. Not anymore, now all the team are involved in identifying and addressing Clinical Governance issues.”
- Prof. Donald Hadley, Institute of Neurological Sciences, South Glasgow Hospitals NHS Trust

"The new version of CIRIS is great, it is very straightforward to use. CIRIS has made putting together our asset register, and maintaining our assets so much easier."
- John Ferguson Superintendent Radiographer Yorkhill NHS Trust

CIRIS continues to capture the attention of those involved in the delivery of the diagnostic imaging service. CIRIS on the Web has been designed to make the management of clinical governance more straightforward. A frequent comment from those who have seen CIRIS on the Web in action is that not only can CIRIS simplify the management of the department’s clinical governance obligations but that it can make a major contribution to the overall management of the department

New members who recognise the benefits in using CIRIS include:

- Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust
- Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic & District Hospital NHS Trust
- Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology NHS Trust

CIRIS users have often asked if CIRIS can be configured to help manage the tasks associated with COSHH – Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. CIRIS is pleased to announce the development of a CIRIS – COSHH module that will be available to all users in January 2004. The module is being developed in collaboration with the Radiology Department at Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust.

The development of the module further extends the benefits of using CIRIS into another aspect of the running of a radiology department. The COSHH module will be fully integrated into CIRIS and will enable the audit cycle to be managed and the resulting compliance issues to be monitored. The module has been designed to replace the range of paper and bespoke systems typically found in Radiology Departments.

Mary Unsworth, Deputy Business Manager in the Radiology Department at Ipswich commented “Our current approach is essentially paper based. Forms are completed manually and returned to Estates, requiring photocopies to be made. The CIRIS COSHH module will streamline the paperwork, avoid the possibility of assessment forms getting lost and help us to stay on top of all the compliance issues."
The development of the module further extends the benefits of using CIRIS into another aspect of the running of a radiology department. The COSHH module will be fully integrated into CIRIS and will enable the audit cycle to be managed and the resulting compliance issues to be monitored. The module has been designed to replace the range of paper and bespoke systems typically found in Radiology Departments.

Mary Unsworth, Deputy Business Manager in the Radiology Department at Ipswich commented “Our current approach is essentially paper based. Forms are completed manually and returned to Estates, requiring photocopies to be made. The CIRIS COSHH module will streamline the paperwork, avoid the possibility of assessment forms getting lost and help us to stay on top of all the compliance issues."

Regulatory bodies, such as CNST, require that you have systems in place which can be used to identify any equipment which requires the operator to be specially trained, including a log of who has been trained. Such a system must be capable of providing evidence of compliance, such as an inventory of equipment, a database of training courses and authorised users.

CIRIS has been specifically designed to fulfil this role and provide the evidence of compliance. CIRIS contains a comprehensive set of registers that capture and link together the assets in the department, the staff that use the equipment and the training courses required and records of attendance. The easy to use reporting tool ensures that the information is readily available when required.

Managing compliance to statutory and professional standards places an ever increasing demand upon the running of a radiology service – a demand that consumes time and resources to audit compliance, manage and report upon progress. This demand is magnified by the volume and duplication that exists across the different standards.

CIRIS addresses this problem by presenting the user with a single view of the standards that are relevant to the running of the service. User can clearly see what they must comply with, capture an assessment of compliance, record and manage the required action plans and report on progress, avoiding duplication of effort and producing reports that summarise compliance across the service, clearly indicating areas that must be improved.

CIRIS integrates this work into the wider demands of managing clinical governance across the service, providing visibility of what needs to be done and helping to prioritise the work load of the service.

Following discussions with those involved with producing, implementing and monitoring breast screening and symptomatic standards, the CIRIS Governing Board is now looking to include the standards in CIRIS.

The standards will be integrated into the existing set of standards allowing users to seamlessly manage all of the compliance issues across the whole department.This should make the process of monitoring and reporting on compliance more efficient and effective.

The developments will be discussed at the RCR Breast Group Annual Scientific Meeting (November 2003):
http://www.rcrbreastgroup.com

Up-to-date documented procedures and clinical protocols underpin effective clinical governance, but for many radiology services, the systems for creating, maintaining and disseminating these documents, (often numbering well over one hundred) leave much to be desired.

The problem has long been recognized. Protocols and procedures are often developed by different staff and stored on different PCs, with no formal processes in place to ensure systematic review of their contents. The result is duplication and confusion as to whether documents are at draft stage, have been superseded or are the latest approved versions. The original document is often lost, necessitating a rewrite and increasing the risk of key points being missed or inappropriate changes being made. The problem gets further compounded as staff leave the service.

The first stage of solving this problem is to agree a strategy for creating a central library of procedures and protocols using the integrated document management system in CIRIS. All of the documents produced around the department can be gathered from individual PCs, uploaded into CIRIS and then linked with the standard list of processes. When assessments are done for a set of process indicators, the person responsible will assign ownership of the associated documents to individuals and ensure that the work of de-duplication and document review takes place. The benefit of this is that the work of cleaning up what documents already exists is spread across the staff in the service. The work of reviewing and updating can be made part of the systematic review of good practice across the whole service.

It is easy to underestimate the work required to create and maintain an effective document management system. Patient and staffing pressures make the delivery of the service difficult enough without having to find the time to design a document management system. There are also some very real practical issues to deal with like getting IT departments to maintain systems, making the systems work across different sites and the storage space required on servers. The document management system in CIRIS is a managed service which means you do not have be concerned with these problems. With no software to install or update, CIRIS has been designed to be used by anyone with a basic level of computing skill (if you can use a web browser, you can use CIRIS). This ensures that documentation is readily available to staff from any PC with access to the Web including PC's on different sites and at home!

CIRIS has attracted great interest since its launch at UKRC 2003 this year. David Kirk, Business Development Director at CIRIS is very pleased with the response and commented “Now that CIRIS is available over the web, users can see how CIRIS can make a significant contribution to managing the clinical governance agenda across the whole of a radiology department. It is pleasing to see that interest in CIRIS is coming from users in both the NHS and the Independent sector.” Since the launch at UKRC 2003, new members include:

- Queen Victoria NHS Trust
- Brighton & Sussex University Hospital NHS Trust
- Ealing Hospital NHS Trust.

CIRIS are pleased to announce the development of an IR(ME)R service for CIRIS on the Web with the assistance of the DoH.

CIRIS users regularly ask if CIRIS can be configured to facilitate the management of IR(ME)R. CIRIS Healthcare is therefore pleased to announce an IR(ME)R service for CIRIS, developed with the assistance of the Department of Health (DoH), providing a definitive IR(ME)R implementation and guidance system. The CIRIS IR(ME)R system will enable proper management of exacting IR(ME)R requirements. Users will be logically directed through the most appropriate application of the legislation and its ongoing maintenance. At every stage the user will be supported by guidance agreed by the DoH experts who devised and now oversee this UK variant of European legislation.

The CIRIS IR(ME)R service will be fully integrated with the full suite of CIRIS facilities that ensure effective clinical governance in today’s diagnostic imaging services.

The CIRIS IR(ME)R service will be ready in late 2003 / early 2004. Existing CIRIS Radiology users will be able to access the new service as soon as it is released with no increase in subscription.