Princess Alexandra Hospital goes live with Oracle Health EHR

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) has gone live with an electronic health record (EHR). 

The Oracle Health system, which the trust is calling Alex Health, was rolled out at the trust on 2-3 November 2024.

Alex Health is an integrated digital record of patient care, drawing together information from all health systems that store patient information and data.

It allows clinicians to order tests or medications electronically, review results remotely and see which beds are in use.

Phil Holland, chief information officer at PAHT, said: “It will bring significant benefits for patients, from improving safety and the sharing of information between clinicians; to reducing repeat testing, hospital attendances and admissions; with improved access to appointment booking and rescheduling; and better support for patients to manage their own care.”

The system will be accessible for patients from computers, tablets and other hand-held devices, with a secure login always required as it contains confidential information.

Patients can access Alex Health via the patient portal, a web-based, secure, digital service where they can manage their own appointment schedule, complete assessments and questionnaires from home, view all hospital letters digitally, and receive appointment reminders on their phone.

Staff who need to access records will be assigned a secure access method which uniquely identifies them. Their details will be recorded for every action that is taken on the system, and this will be regularly audited.

The Oracle Health system will also be used to send discharge summaries and any other records of care or test results to local GPs and others outside the trust involved in a patient’s care, such as a district nurse.

The trust announced on X that some appointments will be rescheduled once EHR is up and running to allow staff to become accustomed to it.

Whilst we launch our new electronic health record system, we are rescheduling some non-urgent appointments in line with advice from our clinicians and will contact patients who are affected directly.

For more information, visit: https://t.co/mUmrHLjI6n pic.twitter.com/y926HJ2mVD

— The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (@NHSHarlow) October 31, 2024

“To make sure we still provide patients with safe, high quality care during and after we go-live, we need to operate at a reduced capacity for a few weeks whilst our staff get used to the new ways of working.

“Therefore, we’re rescheduling some less-urgent patient appointments and working closely with other services in the community to release pressure on the hospital,” the trust said.

It added: “Our highly experienced clinicians are making the decisions to reschedule appointments, and we are doing our utmost to find the soonest available replacement appointments for those patients affected.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and appreciate the support and understanding of our community as we make this significant change to benefit our patients.”

The EHR go-live is part of a ten-year agreement between PAHT and Oracle Health signed in April 2023 to modernise the trust’s hospital systems.