Torbay and South Devon picks Epic for EPR

Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust has selected Epic as its preferred supplier for an electronic patient record system.

The procurement is still subject to contracts and NHS England approval of a full business case. Value of the procurement has not been disclosed.

When introduced over the next two years, the new EPR will replace up to 25 major systems, including many that are paper based.  The same Epic EPR is already in use at neighbouring Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Torbay and South Devon provides a mixture of adult social care, community and acute services across parts of Dartmoor along with Torbay and the South Devon areas around Totnes and Dartmouth at over 15 sites and in people’s homes.

The trust was created in 2015 through the merger of South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust.

Deputy chief executive and director of transformation and partnerships, Adel Jones, said: “Our new EPR is the cornerstone of our Trust strategy and will help us to improve how we securely and efficiently share information across NHS organisations, including with primary care and mental health services.”

CCIO Dr Michael Green added: “As part of the introduction of the new system, we will be reviewing all of our care pathways to ensure we become a truly digital organisation that harnesses all the new technologies open to us. From a clinical perspective we are really excited about the opportunities EPR will bring.”

Chief Nurse Informatics, Chrissy Dixon, further added: Our new EPR will help us share information across all of our different services and sites, whether that be in the community or at an acute hospital. Patients will also be able to digitally track their own healthcare appointments, test results and follow-ups in one place.”

Epic executive Leslie Selby said: “In addition to the single joined-up record of care, the trust will be able to offer convenient mobile access for patients and clinicians as well as secure data exchange with other organisations and services across the region.”

Poor IT infrastructure was identified as a weakness at the trust in the latest, June 2023, Care Quality Commission report on the trust which stated, “The IT infrastructure was outdated and provided barriers to sharing information and impacted on the confidence in the quality of data when pulling from lots of sources.”

The trust had to declare a critical incident after a major IT failure in 2019.

Epic is now used by English NHS trusts including Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.