Four DHBs move to BadgerNet Global for maternity

eHealthNews.nz: Clinical Software

Sunday, 23 May 2021

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NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Four North Island DHBs are implementing BadgerNet Global as their Maternity Clinical Information System (MCIS) next month.

Counties Manukau Health, Tairāwhiti, MidCentral and Capital and Coast DHBs are all upgrading their current version of BadgerNet to the BadgerNet Global platform simultaneously in June 2021.

The MCIS is an instance of CleverMed’s BadgerNet, specifically tailored for New Zealand for maternity and neonatal care, as well as newborn screening.

Auckland DHB will also go-live on BadgerNet Global, which allows real-time recording of clinical care in hospitals, the community and at home, later this year.

Sarah Tout, clinical director of women’s health at CM Health, says the single care record is shared between users of the system so having Auckland on board will be of huge benefit as a lot of patients move between the two DHBs.

The integration of fetal monitoring directly into the system will make it a complete record of care.

“It’s exciting and really positive to have something new like this,” she says.

Tout was part of a NZ group that visited the UK to see BadgerNet Global in action and says the new system is more clinically intuitive and easier to navigate.

CM Health has been using the local version of BadgerNet as early adopters since 2014, but despite a lot of development work, it remains primarily forms-based and does not flow well as a clinical system.

“We found the system in the UK is fundamentally the same but developed quite significantly. With more hospitals using it and more clinical input and finance, it has evolved much more quickly so it’s a no-brainer for us to move to the global system,” she says.

The UK system is more mobile, which is crucial to making it accessible at the bedside and in women’s homes.

It also has a patient portal available via an app where a woman can see her results and the health provider can push relevant information out to her, which CM Health intends to use, she says.

The Counties Manukau implementation will involve a snapshot of maternity information being made available via the DHB’s clinical portal.

The initial plan was to complete transition to the global platform in September/ October 2020, but this was delayed due to Covid-19.

Shayne Hunter, deputy director-general data and digital says the Ministry of Health’s agreement with Clevermed means it can provide “the capability for information management for maternity services to DHBs and other parts of the sector as required”.

He says there is no mandatory requirement that BadgerNet Global be used nationally, but the system is available nationally.

“A Perinatal Spine (a secure database for storing and exchanging national maternity data in real-time) is being developed that will enable certified systems to securely record, store, view and contribute to the record of care (a specific maternity summary information data set) if those systems are not direct users of the BadgerNet Global product,” Hunter says.

“This will enable specific national maternity information to be shared nationwide between community and hospital systems no matter which local system is used.”