Yeovil EPR Trakcare go-live a “success”

Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has successfully gone-live with TrakCare as its new electronic patient record.

Tony Smith, medical lead for IT at the trust, said after two years preparation the trust had started rolling out the EPR Saturday, 11 June

The roll-out had had taken several days, starting with data migration, the emergency department, then inpatients, maternity the patient administration system and, on Monday, outpatients.

“I think everyone is pretty happy here,” he said. “The feeling is there has been as little impact as possible.”

Yeovil is only the second trust in England to go-live with an InterSystem’s EPR, after North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. The system had proven more popular so far in Scotland, where it covers most of the country.

Yeovil is the first of three trusts in the south rolling out InterSystems together, in what has been called the SmartCare project.

The other two trusts are Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust and Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, both of which plan to go-live later this year.

All three trusts have pushed back their go-live date several times, to ensure “safety and performance standards”.

Smith said staff from their two partner trusts, and from North Tees and Hartlepool, had been on hand during the week to help with the transition, and would continue to provide support over the coming weekend.

“They have helped us here and there has been quite a collaborative approach throughout.”

Staff enthusiasm for training and adapting to the new system had also been a huge part of the success, he said.

The trust planned to review the go-live more thoroughly next week.