Comprehensive EPR to manage patients living with HIV using SNOMED CT terminology

Climate-HIV is the central hub for all patient data relating to your HIV Clinic's Cohort. Accessible for all authorised members of your multi-disciplinary team. Accuracy of clinical data provides for correct coding of all aspects of patient care, ensuring that clinical activity is appropriately remunerated and easily accessible within the Trust. Reporting is simplified and made more accurate through the use of industry best practises and codification using SNOMED CT and ICD 10.

Climate-HIV makes best use of the SNOMED CT coding system for codification of diagnoses, Clinical Findings, Conditions and Procedures in healthcare. The software allows the user to assign SNOMED CT codes to many aspects of patient data. This process is facilitated through the provision of a user friendly screen enabling you to navigate through the multi-nodal SNOMED CT hierarchy and select the codification at the best level to record the information known to the medical professionals. A SNOMED CT concept can be assigned to a patient’s EPR in a few simple steps.

The SNOMED CT screen can be accessed from various points within the Climate-HIV EPR giving you fast access when appropriate. Certain user groups, such as consultants and nurse specialists, are allowed to mark SNOMED CT codes as a “favourites” making these codes easier to find next time you need them.

Climate-HIV has a fully contained SNOMED CT maintenance module that allows the Trusts to upload updated SNOMED CT files. This means that the SNOMED CT information can always be kept up to date as it is updated by the issuing body.

Clinicians want to find the right balance between telling an individual patient’s story in detail, and being very specific and clear in their terminology. Freetext is the best medium for the first, and SNOMED CT for the second task.

The delivery of HIV patient care is a team effort shared across a number of clinical areas and by using SNOMED CT, Climate-HIV ensures clinical staff across the multi-disciplinary team record patient information in a consistent manner, enabling the information to be communicated and interpreted in a standard way between healthcare professionals as well as with governing bodies for statutory reporting. SNOMED CT also allows clinicians to quickly report on patients with similar conditions to compare and audit whilst ensuring the hospital gets paid for the right procedures and diagnoses.