Norfolk trust selects IMMJ Systems and SPS to improve patient care

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has selected Swiss Post Solutions (SPS) to deliver a digital transformation solution.

SPS chose IMMJ Systems to provide the Electronic Document Management (EDM) component of the overall solution, and its implementation expertise to deliver MediViewer, its next-generation digital platform enabling clinical EDMS to provide digitised clinical content and full electronic patient records at the point of care.

Taking its first step to becoming a digital hospital by digitising paper health records and making them available electronically, NNUH becomes one of the latest UK trusts to embark on this exciting journey to become paper-lite by 2023.

A huge amount of time and resource is diverted into manually managing and moving patients notes to different locations. We therefore needed to find a solution to help us reduce paper processes and become more operationally efficient

The trust is a 1,200-bed teaching hospital, employing 10,000 staff and covering a wide geographic region. It is the largest acute hospital in the Norfolk and Waveney region and one of the largest in the country.

The deployment of IMMJ Systems MediViewer will transform the way the trust provides patient information to clinicians – making patient records instantly available whenever they are needed, and wherever clinicians are based geographically, providing them with a fully-consistent and up-to-date version of patient information which will, in turn, improve patient care.

MediViewer’s functionality will enable clinical and administrative staff to access key patient information with ease. And IMMJ’s SmartIndex technology facilitates a number of uniquely-powerful search capabilities within MediViewer, including real-time dynamic indexing, high-speed document searching, and industry-leading text filtering functions within the HTML-based client app, available on both mobile and desktop platforms.

The trust believes that this solution will also help enable greater collaboration across different sites and improved access to clinical data with an offline working function being delivered as part of the solution, enabling those remote workers to access critical patient records wherever they may be. This will help to streamline internal processes, as well as ultimately deliver significant cost savings of £2.5m per annum.

Anthony Lundrigan, the trust’s chief information officer, said: “A huge amount of time and resource is diverted into manually managing and moving patients notes to different locations. We therefore needed to find a solution to help us reduce paper processes and become more operationally efficient.

This is one of the largest electronic medical record projects in the UK and one that demonstrates the tangible benefits of what can be achieved quickly and at large scale

“This is a first and significant step in delivering our five-year digital strategy for the trust and is part of a wider digital strategy for Norfolk and Waveney Sustainability Transformation Partnership.”

Ryan Reed, head of public sector at SPS, added: “We are delighted to have been awarded this contract and that the trust has entrusted us to help it on its digitisation journey.

“This is one of the largest electronic medical record projects in the UK and one that demonstrates the tangible benefits of what can be achieved quickly and at large scale.”

And Lisa Harris, chief operations officer at IMMJ Systems, said: “The level of clinical and stakeholder engagement throughout the tendering and evaluation process demonstrates how significant this programme of work is to the trust.

“Our team will work alongside Trust resources to deliver MediViewer and implement transformational change to improve access to patient records and streamline the associated business processes.”