Princess Alexandra deploys digital experience management solution

Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust is projected to save between £2.5m and £3m in IT costs thanks to its latest digital transformation project with Riverbed.

The savings will come over five years, following the implementation of a digital experience management solution.

Riverbed’s Alluvio Aternity was deployed across the trust’s three hospitals: Princess Alexandra, Herts and Essex Hospital and St Margaret’s Hospital. The solution provides real-time application and device analytics and automated remediation. It’s been in use for a year and as a result Princess Alexandra has seen reductions in IT costs as well as increased productivity and clinical digital experiences.

Before the solution was deployed the trust’s clinicians were experiencing 947 hours of lost productivity every quarter due to blue screens across devices, issues with applications and PCs running slowly. Now, Princess Alexandra reports it has gained almost 700 hours quarterly in productivity, giving around 28 days back for patient care.

Jeffrey Wood, deputy director of ICT at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, said: ‘‘Alluvio Aternity from Riverbed is able to highlight where our real issues are. We’re now able to work on the areas that need improving and have a true understanding of the end-user experience.”

Wood continued: “In January 2023, we had 1,308 open tickets with 629 overdue. By May 2023, with more actionable insights and automation, the IT team had 628 open tickets with zero overdue. We’ve greatly reduced service desk tickets, which results in an improved user experience and increased levels of productivity.”

The solution is giving the trust new-found visibility, which is helping staff to optimise hardware replacement based on performance as opposed to age. This then allows the trust to allocate funds to other vital improvements in patient care.

It is also helping Princess Alexandra to work towards it sustainability goals, by helping it reduce its carbon footprint and slash its electricity bills by shutting down idle devices.

John Atkinson, director solutions engineering, UK&I at Riverbed, said: “We have enabled the trust to have a single source of truth for its clinician experience, greatly improving the performance of their digital services, whilst simultaneously reducing their IT spend.”

In April this year, Princess Alexandra Hospitals NHS Trust signed a 10-year agreement with Oracle Health to modernise its hospital systems with an electronic health record (EHR).