Georgia Hodgson, Test QA for Bluespier, explains why leading a information security project was a great professional development opportunity, what to expect from an ISO audit, and how the journey to certification resulted in some surprising internal culture changes.

Bluespier products are used by healthcare professionals in over 40 NHS Trusts and hospitals, serving millions of patients across the U.K.  The NHS is demanding more from their technology suppliers in regards to data security, and an ISO 27001 certification is becoming an increasingly mandatory standard for software supplied to the NHS.

“At first, leading the project was a bit daunting,” said Georgia.  “As a healthcare tech product it’s so important for us that customers have complete trust in how we handle and look after their data so it was crucial the accreditation process went smoothly.”

“I’ve always had an interest in information security, but to know that  our leadership team trusted and supported me to deliver on this was a huge confidence boost and professional development opportunity for me.”

To begin, Georgia attended an ISO accreditation training course, to obtain crucial training and learning around the details, the approach and what to expect from the audit.  She also had access to the Clanwilliam ISO network, which included colleagues who had already been through the process, to ask questions and share experiences.

“That training and network was invaluable. It became clear that this is not just an information security piece but a cultural piece – my role was to guide the process but the end result is that whole team needs to be equally responsible for self-auditing and thinking ‘ISO’ in every project we do.”

The comprehensive audit itself was rigorous, with the team undergoing six months of self-assessment against a certification test plan, followed by a detailed audit by the certification body.

Georgia explains; “Information security spans so much and a project like this really helps to focus your policies and procedures around actual real life examples.  We were tested on anything from how you’d maintain business continuity if you couldn’t access the office unexpectedly – which actually did happen to us one time when the key broke in the lock!! – to the steps if there is a patient data breach, how to correctly version and provide robust audit trails, and everything that helps maintain structured, proactive data safety.”

In December 2022, Bluespier was awarded its accreditation – joining three other Clanwilliam accredited product lines, Dictate IT, Informatica and Medisec. Clanwilliam can provide further assurance to its NHS customers that their data, and the data of their patients, is managed to the highest of standards.  But the work doesn’t stop there.

“Now it’s about living out our procedures and processes and ensuring we’re keeping data security at the front of our minds at all times so our customers have one less thing to worry about,” says Georgia.  “It’s made us work better as a team and as a software partner as we have such confidence in our approach – our culture has completely shifted and we work together in a completely different way which has been an unexpected by exciting output!”

“It’s a really proud moment to see processes that I’ve helped shape working in real life.”

Bluespier is part of Clanwilliam, serving our UK portfolio of healthcare customers.  The clinically driven software suite helps to transform and modernise workflows in theatres, pre-operative clinics, virtual clinics and stock management in NHS Trusts and hospitals.  To read more about how Bluespier’s products are transforming clinical care in theatres and beyond, visit: www.bluespier.com

The NHS Digital Transformation Long-Term Plan lists giving “health and care staff the technology they need to help them complete administrative tasks more quickly, freeing up time to spend with patients” as one of their key objectives.

Flexible, mobile working within NHS Trusts has never been more important, both to help clinician efficiency and to align with NHS Digital Transformation objectives. Here at Bluespier we recognise and support these objectives whilst understanding how complicated mobile working might seem to implement within a Trust environment.

We know that NHS staff require these improvements in technology to help bridge the gap between true electronic data capture and efficient patient care. But the answer is more complicated than just implementing new software – Trusts need support to unblock obstacles like poor Wi-Fi signals in Theatres, a lack of investment in technology infrastructure and staff having no access to mobile devices.

There isn’t a fast solution or ‘silver bullet’ to solving these issues – we work with Trusts every day who are just starting their journey to becoming more mobile. There are cultural considerations, like engaging key staff, and investment challenges that require detailed business plans. But the long-term benefits of removing blockers and investing in technology are well worth it. Trusts that go paperless can recognise huge savings.

It’s thanks to our years of experience of supplying Trusts and working with them to resolve these issues that we developed Bluespier Mobile. It enables your Trust to utilise real-time data in a way that can further transform theatre processes and improve patient care. By equipping key theatre team members with Bluespier Mobile-enabled iPads, they can complete WHO checklists at the patient bedside, update scheduling information and view patient tracking details in real-time.

We can work with your Trust to overcome obstacles and help recognise cost-related benefits realisation of mobile working. If you already have Bluespier Theatres at your Trust, adding Bluespier Mobile is the next step in efficiency, patient care improvements and digital transformation.

As Chief People Officer for Clanwilliam, Tara’s mission is to ensure our People are able to ‘bring their best selves and be their full selves’ at work.  She plays an instrumental role in driving the talent and corporate culture strategies across Clanwilliam, bringing together diverse teams across three continents. 

With the healthcare technology group expanding year by year, Tara talks about some of her key focuses, including recognition initiatives that really work and embedding values as a performance measure.

Continue reading ““We make Clanwilliam a brilliant place to work by encouraging our people to bring their real selves to work.””

We want to make payments as smooth as possible for our customers so we are delighted to announce our new partnership with Billink.

Billink to make payments in clinical practice easier by focusing relentlessly on simplifying both sides of any transaction. They do this by making it easier for practice staff members to create and manage payments while also making it exceptionally easy for any patient to pay their practice.

In the Billink Dashboard you can now toggle a setting on/off that will automatically send your patients a reminder text message if they have not paid you after 24 hours from the initial Billink being sent. Research shows that text messages achieve a 98% open rate on average and reminders have been shown to result in faster payments to your practice. This feature has now been activated by default. It can deactivate/reactivate this feature any time from inside your Billink dashboard.

All Billink users receive a weekly insights report along with the remittance report. We use the insights report to summarise how well your practice is using Billink compared to the network average as well as listing the patients who still owe the practice fees from outstanding Billink payments from the previous week.

And the claims of ‘I never got that’ are now officially a thing of the past! Billink has added in functionality that allows you to see exactly when the message was sent, viewed and paid by the patient. You will also be able to see these details for all resent Billink and automatic reminders.

At iMedDoc we are committed to helping you however best we can at all times but particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this in mind, we are happy to announce that video consultations are now available in your system. Our development team has worked around the clock to deliver this functionality in the hope that it will make your day-to-day activities a little bit easier.

The process is very simple, you share a link with your patient and they click on the link to enter the video consultation. They can see you and you can see them via the camera on both of your devices. We recommend that you use the system via a broadband connection to ensure the best possible results.

Literally everything is handled via our cloud based HD video conferencing system meaning all communications take place within the secure parameters of our system. iMedDoc HD video conferencing integrates seamlessly, is completely scalable and there is zero infrastructure, setup or maintenance cost. And seeing as we have developed it ourselves it is possible for larger clinic groups to brand their video consultation experience.