The Trust’s digital care transformation programme was launched in March 2014 and will be completed by 2017. It brings a number of new IT systems together to improve the efficiency of our processes.
The aim of the programme is to integrate as many functions as possible into as few systems as possible, which will make better use of our resources and streamline care for patients.
Patient administration system
The Trust’s patient administration system (PAS) was replaced with a system called Lorenzo in summer 2016. Lorenzo will link to the national NHS patient database (“Spine”) and streamline our processes for referral and registration as it links to data held by GPs. Around 50 members of staff volunteered to be digital care champions, and there is a training programme for all staff users in progress.
Electronic document management
Around 250,000 patient medical records are being scanned into electronic format, which enables staff to search, create, store and retrieve records at the click of a button. Having a full patient history stored electronically will improve our processes and reduce storage costs as there will be no need for paper records. Electronic document management (EDM) will help us move towards a paperless or paper-light environment and will significantly change the way we work.
EPMA reduces the problems associated with poor handwriting
Electronic prescribing and medicines management
Electronic prescribing and medicines management (EPMA) enables clinical staff to prescribe and review medication using laptops at the bedside. EPMA has replaced paper-based processes and has been rolled out to most wards across the Trust.
Nimla Pentayya, a nurse in the paediatric unit, says:
“EPMA means it’s much easier to prescribe drugs safely, and reduces the problems associated with poor handwriting. Patients who are due to be discharged have a much shorter wait for their medicines, and it’s much easier for us to make sure doses are on time.”
Clinical data warehouse
A clinical data warehouse (CDW) has now been introduced to the Trust. This communicates with different clinical and operational IT systems, including EPMA, EDM and PAS and can extract, manipulate and store multiple complex datasets.
CDW enables staff to minimise time spent on operational reporting and clinical audits, and provides a platform for research. It will eventually allow clinicians and managers to collaborate and share information across the Trust.