Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital to roll out Epic EHR in 2025

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust (RNOH) has announced plans to implement the Epic electronic health record (EHR), following funding approval by NHS England.

The roll out is expected to take place in November 2025 across all three of the trust’s sites: the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, the Bolsover Street Outpatient Assessment Centre, and the Enfield Musculoskeletal Community Health Hub.

Epic’s EHR will replace paper records and many of the current clinical systems at RNOH with a single, fully integrated clinical record, with the aim of enabling staff to access accurate and up-to-date patient information.

Professor Paul Fish, chief executive at RNOH, said: “As more hospitals move in this direction, digital innovation and transformation such as Epic’s EHR is taking patient care forward to exciting places.

“This new system will help maintain RNOH’s position as the UK’s leading provider of acute neuro-musculoskeletal medicine to our complex patient group.

“Working in partnership with UCLH and being able to draw on their knowledge and experience of using Epic will set us up for success long into the future.”

From September 2024, RNOH will collaborate with University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), to benefit from UCLH’s experience in designing, implementing and using Epic since March 2019.

Dr Lila Dinner, deputy chief executive and chief medical office at RNOH, said: “Partnering with UCLH to implement Epic will provide our staff with the right tools and insights to develop and build their skills base to ensure our patients continue to receive the safest, highest quality, and efficient care”.

A LinkedIn post from RNOH confirmed that the focus will be on a new Epic Connect model “to implement an extension” of UCLH’s EHR.

Dr Gill Gaskin, medical director, digital healthcare at UCLH, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with our RNOH colleagues and to be able to share our experience of implementing such a huge change programme – to the benefit of even more patients.

“We know that the key to success will be the ongoing cooperation across trusts and the involvement of clinicians and patients so that everyone benefits quickly when Epic goes live at RNOH.”

Meanwhile, in March 2024, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust signed a contract to implement Epic’s electronic patient record (EPR), and University Hospitals Plymouth announced that it had selected Epic as its preferred EPR supplier.