A new digital feature has been launched to help accurately and quickly identify which GP consulted with a patient and when - avoiding multiple clinicians being drawn into clinical negligence claims when they have not been involved in a patient’s care.
Developed by Irish-based Socrates, part of global healthcare technology company Lanas, in collaboration with Medical Protection, the new clinician-identification feature automatically records the clinician responsible for every patient interaction - whether in person, over the phone, by text message or letter - and securely stores the information in the patient’s electronic record.
The new feature removes the need for practice staff to spend time manually tracing who was involved in a patient’s care if a claim summons lists all clinicians, and reduces the risk of error. It also saves numerous GPs the time and stress of liaising with Medical Protection, or their indemnifier, about a claim they should not be involved in.
The feature, now available to all Socrates users across Ireland, was designed in direct response to feedback from GP teams.
Eileen Byrne, Managing Director at Lanas said:
“This enhancement within Socrates gives practices and Medical Protection members the reassurance they need when reviewing clinical information. It’s a simple but meaningful update that was developed with GPs in mind - strengthening accuracy, supporting their work, and saving valuable time during what can often be a stressful process.
“By removing ambiguity in shared patient records, Socrates helps GPs focus more on care and less on paperwork - another step in improving efficiency, transparency, and confidence in primary care.”
Dr Rob Hendry, Chief Member Officer and Medical Director at Medical Protection added:
“Socrates’ new clinician-identification feature addresses a longstanding issue in clinical negligence claims, where all GPs in a practice can be listed on a single summons even if they have never met the patient. This could be because the patient cannot recall who they saw on a particular day, or because of the period of time between a consultation and a claim being brought. This can cause multiple issues for all parties involved.
“We’re delighted to see the feature rolled out to GP practices across Ireland, and to have collaborated with the Socrates team on its development. It brings about greater accountability and transparency to medical records and should help to reduce the number of GPs being named as defendants in claims unnecessarily.”
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About Socrates, Socrates by Lanas
Socrates is one of Ireland’s leading clinical software systems, supporting thousands of healthcare professionals in delivering safe, efficient, and high-quality patient care. With a focus on continuous improvement and collaboration, Socrates evolves in partnership with healthcare organisations across Ireland.
About Lanas Healthcare Technology Ltd
Lanas is a global healthcare technology company uniting proven products and services under one organisation. For nearly three decades, these products have supported clinicians worldwide. Lanas provides the scale, structure, and expertise to strengthen existing innovations and develop new ones, delivering value-driven solutions across pharmacy, primary and community care, specialist, care platform, and medical communications markets in more than 20 countries.
Find out more at www.lanas.com
About MPS
The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”) is the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals. We protect and support the professional interests of more than 350,000 members around the world. Membership provides access to expert advice and support and can also provide, depending on the type of membership required, the right to request indemnity for any complaints or claims arising from professional practice.
Our in-house experts assist with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that arise from professional practice. This can include clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests and fatal accident inquiries.
Our philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. We do this by promoting risk management through our workshops, E-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures and presentations.
MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.