Medway NHS FT goes live with new EPR within five months

Medway NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with a new electronic patient record (EPR) – with the entire project taking less than five months to deploy.

Phase one of Medway’s EPR programme with Allscripts saw it go live across all 24 adult in-patient wards. Within just three weeks, 115,000 documents were created in the system with the trust estimating that around 30 minutes per patient is being saved due to the use of electronic notes.

A deal with Allscripts was originally signed back in July and by mid-November the system was up and running.

Aside from the clinical benefits of freeing up professionals’ time to spend on delivering care, patient experience has also been enhanced.

Dr Nabeel Qureshi, consultant surgeon and clinical lead for EPR at the trust: “The EPR is transforming our workflows, and is already having a positive impact on patient safety. Having electronic clinical documents all but eradicates human error. Notes are easy to read and can be completed at the bedside on a computer, meaning we spend more time caring for our patients and less time checking handwriting.

“We also have access to the GP record, so there’s less repetition for the patient or reliance on them remembering their care history, meaning the care journey is more joined up.”

The Allscripts Sunrise system is being used by more than 1,000 clinical, nursing and administrative Medway staff, who worked collaboratively with operational and IT teams to ensure the trust was able to go live within five months. The trust is the first global organisation to go live with this particular version (version 21.1), future-proofing its digital maturity.

Having only rolled out its patient administration system (PAS) five years’ ago, Medway took a cautious approach to the roll out, phasing it to introduce less functionality but across more areas. This gave it time to assess the appetite for digital and helped ensure a speedy roll-out.

In 2022, the trust intends to expand Sunrise’s functionality to include an electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA). It is also looking to develop the region’s shared care record by working with other neighbouring acute trusts.

Paula Ridd, general manager UK and Ireland, Allscripts, added: “Seeing what Medway has achieved in such a short space of time is nothing short of remarkable. The resilience, determination and innovative nature of the team has enabled them to achieve a rapid deployment in less than five months.

“With other acute trusts in Kent now live with Allscripts’ Sunrise EPR, there’s increased possibility for truly joined up care at an ICS level.”