Digital Health’s monthly roundup of contracts and go lives

The latest roundup of contracts and go lives features news about integration issues for East Lancashire causing a delay to their EPR go live and a shared care planning solution being deployed across London.

South Tees goes live with electronic prescribing and medication system

Earlier in August, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust went live with an electronic prescribing and medication administration (ePMA) system from Better.

Its deployment to inpatient and outpatient areas is the next step of the trust’s modular electronic patient record (EPR) programme with Alcidion. The ePMA fully integrates with Alcidion’s EPR, Miya Precision, and the aim of implementing is to remove paper forms and manual processes as well as supporting safe prescribing decisions.

As a result of having the ePMA, South Tees will have an improved audit trail of every medication dose administered, meaning staff can have access to easier visibility of when patients are due their medication.

As well as monitoring when medication is due, the system will also provide trend analysis, enabling staff to easily identify potential issues early on so swift action can be taken.

Integration issues cause East Lancashire to delay EPR go live

As August progressed, it came to light that East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) has delayed the planned November go live of their new electronic patient record system due to integration issues.

The trust decided to pause the go live because during the testing phase they identified some difficulties connected specifically to how the system interfaces with other existing systems the trust uses.

The pause is not related to any problems or issues with the new system itself, but how it integrates with systems that the trust already has in place. The chief executive at ELHT confirmed that no exact new go live date has been set but the hope is that it will happen by Spring 2023.

Shared care planning solution is deployed across London

A region-wide shared care planning solution is now live across London, led by OneLondon.

London’s Urgent Care Plan has now been implemented across five integrated care systems (ICSs), 40 NHS trusts and 1,400 general practices. It means 11million people across the capital are now able to have their care and support preferences shared digitally with health and care professionals.

NHS South West London has worked in partnership with Better to deploy the solution, which is underpinned by open health data and low-code tools. It is hoped the Urgent Care Plan will reduce duplication and improve accessibility.

To help with the roll out, ReStart has been selected to be an integration partner. The integration and interoperability supplier provided a central integration engine which facilitated the migration of 52,000 end of life care plans, enabling the sharing of PDF plans across all five of London’s ICSs.

Leeds and York Partnership sign 10-year deal with IMMJ Systems

Later in August it was announced that Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has awarded a 10-year contract to IMMJ Systems to provide an electronic document management system (EDMS).

The contract forms part of a major project to digitise medical records, which will see the trust’s legacy and active patient records securely scanned into IMMJ’s MediViewer. It is hoped having an EDMS will support more accurate searching and use of existing and legacy clinical information.

In addition, the EDMS will enable mobile clinical decision making support for the trust’s clinicians and ensure that clinical teams have access to the most accurate information. All of this will be integrated into Leeds and York Partnership’s EPR, CareDirector.

East and North Hertfordshire introduce digital care plans

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust has deployed digital care plans at one of its hospitals to ensure clinical staff can access vital information when they need it.

The trust has rolled out Nervecentre’s digital care plans at its Lister Hospital in Stevenage, following a pilot at two wards at the hospital. By supporting nursing teams to digitally record assessments and care plans, the digital plans ensure that clinical and operational teams have visibility of all information.

Moreover, nurses at the hospital can capture assessments, notes and observations at the patient’s bedside using a mobile device. This information then forms part of the real-time electronic patient record.

The use of digital care plans at the trust is saving a significant amount of time spent collecting and recording patient information. The pilot at Lister Hospital found that while a paper nursing assessment proforma (NAP) took an average of 45 minutes to complete, a digital NAP took just 9.6 minutes, saving over 30 minutes for every patient.