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Child Health Interoperability enables a wide range of benefits including

  • increased timeliness and robustness of information
  • reducing manual re-keying of data

The nature and the magnitude of benefit are driven by:

  • degree of previous automation and centralisation of processes and the frequency of receiving data
  • size of population cohort
  • degree of NEMS use in neighbouring CHIS and associated health visiting services

You can find detailed benefits areas and baselining templates within the provider implementation guidance.  


Observations from private beta

This information highlights the main benefits observed by private beta CHIS providers from receiving demographic and new born screening messages through NEMS. It is based on reviews with the providers in summer 2020. 

1 Saving time on failsafing births against the Birth Notification App (BNA)

Immediate kick in

Change  

Instead of checking BNA to ensure that all births have been received, relevant births reliably come via NEMS; previously a CHIS code may have been wrong or missing on the birth and CHIS would not have received it. NEMS subscription rules send births to the correct CHIS so this is no longer an issue.

Benefit

Time saved ca. 33 hrs/week

Range

1 FTE – 30 mins/week; driven by number of births and frequency or detail of process. 

2 Out of area births received more quickly supporting time critical processes for new-borns

Immediate kick in

Change  

There is now no delay in receiving births from out of area hospitals. These would usually come the following day but could be delayed by several days.

Benefit

Increased robustness and timeliness supporting time critical process for new-borns.

Range

Depends on proportion of out of area births. 

3 Time saved for transfer in and out births

Kick in partially realised now for transfers in, fully realised for all transfers when all CHIS are live. 

Change

Instead of using e-mails or system transfers to receive births from other CHIS (transfer in) or pass births to other CHIS (transfer out), the birth is notified directly to the responsible CHIS. Once all CHIS are live on NEMS the need to transfer births will be eliminated or significantly reduced, saving more time.

Benefit

Time saved: between 1 and 1.5 mins per out of area birth.

Range 

Driven by proportion of births in and out and IT systems used by neighbouring CHIS. 

4 Time saved on uploading or manually entering new-born screening results

Kick in immediate

Change

Instead of manually uploading or keying screening results for new born hearing, 72hr NIPE and Bloodspot, they are automatically received through NEMS.

Benefit 

Time saved ca. 18.5hrs/week

Range  

1 hr week – 16.5 hrs/week depending on population and previous processes.

5 More accurate population cohort through NEMS demographic updates

Immediate change

Change

Demographic changes for 0-19 are notified when they are recorded on the spine, eliminating the reliance on weekly updates or being notified of address changes or movers through other means.

Benefit

Improved accuracy of cohort supporting all CHIS processes

Dis-benefit  

depending on population size and frequency and type of demographic update received previously, more notifications than previously may be received which may increase effort required.

We now find out about moved in babies sooner (..)and blood spot results are being processed more efficiently.  Receiving address changes via NEMS means that our address list for immunisation reminders is more accurate and we have fewer letters returned.  (…) we will be aware of moved in children earlier, so may catch them earlier with immunisation invitations.  
Moving to demographics updated via NEMS means that our cohort overall is now much more accurate, especially for older age groups. For example  a 3-year-old moving in will now be on the system immediately while no interventions are due for some months and notification from previous CHIS may have been late. University students moving in will now be captured by default and will give us the data we need for example for future immunisation catch up campaigns. Over 18s moving back home during Covid were all notified to us.  

Download a copy of the baseline capture template


Last edited: 17 January 2022 9:36 am