Building Better Healthcare takes a look at the latest technologies NHS Trusts have integrated into their systems to advance UK healthcare's digital evolution in August 2024.
In the wake of the new Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, has launched an independent investigation into the NHS to understand the extent of the issues affecting the UK's National Health Service.
As part of addressing the problems, the NHS is progressing in its mission to digitalise services and has already met the former government's target for 90% of trusts to adopt Electronic Patient Records (EPR) in hospitals.
August’s technology round-up is filled with NHS trusts implementing digital platforms to aid with patient care such as flow efficiencies, an AI solution to reduce missed appointments and waiting times, adopting electronic patient record systems, and digitising the lifecycle of a prescription.
For staff, a trust has even introduced a system to manage hybrid working practices.
The Trusts and companies that have made partnerships are:
- The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH)
- System C
- North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC)
- Alcidion
- Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
- Deep Medical
- Healthcare Communications
- Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL)
- Altera Digital Health
- University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB)
- Cisco
- Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCU)
- Better Meds
For more details on these projects, read on.
Electronic Patient Record (EPR)
The first of two EPRs chosen this month is System C.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) has launched the initial phase of its new electronic patient record (EPR) programme, introducing a new patient administration system (PAS) powered by System C’s fully integrated CareFlow EPR technology.
CareFlow EPR has replaced the trust’s 20-year-old PAS system, involving the seamless migration of over one million patient records and comprehensive training for more than 5,000 staff in line with its forward-looking digital strategy.
The adoption of CareFlow EPR is the cornerstone of a comprehensive digital transformation and enhancement strategy for the trust
The adoption of CareFlow EPR is the cornerstone of a comprehensive digital transformation and enhancement strategy for the trust. The multi-million pound digitalisation programme will modernise how the trust stores, facilitates and accesses patient records at Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
Nigel Lee, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at SaTH, said: “CareFlow EPR plays a crucial role in our digital transformation, establishing essential foundations for upcoming digital enhancements. It will facilitate improved flow within our hospitals and promote more integrated collaboration among our teams and local health and care partners.”
The second EPR chosen has been from Alcidion.
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) has selected Alcidion as the preferred supplier for its new electronic patient record system.
Over the last few months, many of us have spent a great amount of time evaluating the various electronic patient record systems in order to reach the correct conclusion to help us implement the best possible dynamic EPR system
NCIC made a clinically led decision to use Alcidion’s Miya Precision platform. The modular EPR will enhance digital maturity and will support clinicians in the delivery of high-quality, safe care for patients.
Intuitive design, ease of use, and interoperability with specialist systems that NCIC wants to retain were the key benefits recognised by the trust’s EPR evaluation team, which represented all services, at all levels, across the trust.
Dr Adrian Clements, Executive Medical Director for NCIC, said: "Over the last few months, many of us have spent a great amount of time evaluating the various electronic patient record systems in order to reach the correct conclusion to help us implement the best possible dynamic EPR system. I feel assured and confident that selecting Alcidion will allow us to implement an EPR that enables high quality patient care, improves clinical safety and saves clinicians’ valuable time."
Artificial Intelligence solution
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust has integrated an Artificial Intelligence solution (AI) into its communications platform to reduce missed appointments, improve waiting times, and drive down health inequalities.
The pilot of the AI solution by Deep Medical, a digital health AI specialist, was successful. Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, saw the number of did not attends (DNAs) reduce by almost a third in six months, the integration has been rolled out across the entire trust.
This is forecast to allow 100,000-150,000 extra patients to be seen and save the trust £28 million each year.
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust has integrated an Artificial Intelligence solution (AI) into its communications platform
The results have led to NHS England announcing plans to roll out Deep Medical’s AI solution to a further ten NHS trusts.
Erica White, Programme Director at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The initial pilot outcomes are hugely encouraging. It has helped us to make the best use of our resources as a service, reducing no shows and supporting the movement of patients off the waiting list. Critical to this is being able communicate with our patients at scale, across multiple channels, and we are delighted to be using the Webex Connect platform through Healthcare Communications to deliver this. Our deployment with Deep Medical and Healthcare Communications will be a fantastic example of how harnessing the power of AI, with proactive, scalable communications will play a key role in the NHS’s improvements.”
Patient flow solution
Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) is the first trust in the UK to implement Altera Digital Health's patient flow solution, to manage patient care and hospital operations.
The system offers real-time insights into bed availability and patient movements, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and patient safety.
WWL is now a digitally enabled Trust, and this technology is crucial for real-time decision-making
Staff across various departments, including bed management and infection control, have embraced this technology, resulting in streamlined workflows and improved discharge processes.
Mary Fleming, Chief Executive of WWL, said: "WWL is now a digitally enabled Trust, and this technology is crucial for real-time decision-making. It supports our mission to create a seamless, integrated healthcare system that prioritises patient needs, enhances staff efficiency, and adapts to the modern healthcare landscape."
Unified Communications (UC) platform
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB) has invested in upgrading its disparate legacy telephony systems with a more resilient and stable UC telephony service that will unify the user experience for all staff and support collaboration across its sites and the community.
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB) has invested in upgrading its disparate legacy telephony systems
For this, UHDB has chosen Cisco.
Driven by the NHS Internet First Policy, the new Cisco Powered sovereign UC telephony service, delivered from the Cinos Cloud will provide the Trust with a secure and reliable service that delivers the flexibility and robustness needed to adopt new hybrid working practices.
Cisco is the company that owns the Cinos Cloud software.
Simon Reynolds, Head of Voice Services at UHDB says: “Telephony is a key service in an acute clinical environment, and we needed to future-proof and maintain the viability of stable telephony platform for our service users and our patients. Additionally, the required skill set to maintain such an old system has become harder to find.”
Electronic prescribing for medicines
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCU), the largest health board in Wales has partnered with ‘Better’ to deliver an electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) system to digitise the lifecycle of a prescription.
The ePMA Better Meds system will replace paper-based processes with digital workflows across 40+ hospital and community sites to manage a patient’s medication record and prescribe medications.
We are one of the first in Wales to start this work, which will support Digital Health and Care Wales’ programme
Mandy Jones, Deputy Executive Director of Nursing and Senior Responsible Officer at BCU said: “This is an important project because it is the first stage in our electronic health record strategy. It will transform services across our hospitals to streamline processes for the benefit of patients and staff. We've taken a user-centred design approach and brought together a team of clinicians, nurses, and pharmacy staff who have engaged with users across many of our services to get their input into how this is going to work.“
“We are one of the first in Wales to start this work, which will support Digital Health and Care Wales’ programme. These wider Welsh Government initiatives will support breaking through organisational boundaries and create a shared medicines record across Wales. We will be working closely with the national team and other health boards to share learnings and insights to achieve the wider national objectives.”
