Norfolk and Norwich move forward with digital transformation plans
- 27 January 2020
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Foundation Trust has selected Swiss Post Solutions (SPS) to deliver a digital transformation solution across the trust.
The document managing outsourcing company has chosen IMMJ Systems to provide the electronic document management (EDM) component of the overall solution while the EDM Group has been selected to scan and digitise new and existing paper medical records.
The programme aims to release space, time and resources within the trust while enabling clinicians to make fully informed decisions on the basis of readily available information.
Anthony Lundrigan, CIO at the trust, said: “This contract is a key part of our strategy to transform digital care at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals (NNUH).
“This is our first step towards becoming a digital hospital and delivering our five-year digital strategy for the trust and is part of a wider digital strategy for Norfolk and Waveney STP.
“It will introduce new ways of working, making it easier for staff to access and read a patient’s health records, therefore improving care and reducing costs for the NHS. This is a very exciting journey to become paper-lite by 2023.”
The deployment of IMMJ Systems MediViewer will make patient records instantly available to them whenever they are needed, and wherever they are based geographically, providing them with a fully consistent and up-to-date version of patient information which will in turn improve patient care.
Alongside this, 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.
Lisa Harris, chief operations officer at IMMJ Systems, added: “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.”
Part of the contract will also involve EDM Group scanning over 140 million images in the first year of the contract. This will be followed by a sustained programme of scanning over subsequent years to ensure as much paper is removed as possible in the shortest timeframe. In total around 236 million images are expected to be captured over four years.
Ruth Gooda, head of healthcare at EDM Group, added: “EDM Group is very proud to have been awarded this high profile contract, which plays to our strengths, experience and expertise.
“We see it as a great opportunity to demonstrate our considerable capabilities in this area and we are looking forward to successfully delivering one of the largest NHS Trust digitisation contracts awarded in recent years.”
9 Comments
Nonsence: an EDM deployment is vastly more effective underpinning an EPR programme. An EDM deployment should underpin any EPR everytime. Happy to discuss: jamieh@immjsystems.com
Visit Trusts who have gone the EDM route and they are scanning paper for years to come- EPR MUST come always come first to stem the creation of paper – then you can ‘mop up’ paper if you wish but it’s a waste of time and money fiddling around with scanned images which cannot be indexed or harvested easily.
Jerry, there is a logic in what you say but it must always be a case by case basis. I’ve seen the same strategies implemented and there in lies the key – the scanning strategy of what to scan and for how long must be sustainable and cost effective. No two Trusts are the same, they’ve managed their legacy records differently and many spend millions annually managing this. Their are enormous cash and efficiency savings made on the projects I have implemented so long as a pragmatic approach to all this is undertaken. An EPR is designed ri inherently stop the production of paper but sadly from what we see the reality is often different, with copious amounts of loose documentation, bespoke silos of information still stored, captured and referred to. As I say, it’s case by case.
The mind boggles at the cost! An EPR rather than an EDM would have been a better bet surely?
What’s the real value of scanning old bits of paper- focus on the future instead of making these EDM and scanning companies rich!
Take your points Jamie- but as a clinical member of staff who has also been involved in deployments and seen the results- pI can say with some confidence that EDM’s are a loss leader, without real time digital information capture and integration (EPR) large amounts of paper will continue to be produced – making the outsourced scanning companies a LOT of revenue! We must get to the source – stem the creation of paper and then mop up if necessary – not the other way round! We will have to agree to disagree- but as an end user I think I may have a more objective view than an EDM supplier- although I appreciate your comments!
Thanks for the comment back. Would be great to meet you even to understand what went wrong and capture your feedback. We are attending Rewired on 3rd and 4th of March or can arrange to meet you? We encompass all feedback into what we do and how we implement oirntechnology so good and bad is always needed!
IMMJ are yet to deliver a ‘real world’ edm rather than an archive solution- SPS, EDM Group, IMMJ and APIRA- this must be costing the Trust an absolute fortune!
Happy to discuss. Nothing about our technology is an arcvive solution that’s exactly what we are replacing at the N&N in WinDIP. Please contact me if you have any queries: jamieh@immjsystems.com
Happy to discuss. Nothing about our technology is an arcvive solution that’s exactly what we are replacing at the N&N in WinDIP. Please contact me if you have any queries: jamieh@immjsystems.com
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