Sunrises on new EPR deployment in Dudley

The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with the Allscripts Sunrise electronic patient record system (EPR).

The trust has now successfully deployed the solution’s electronic observations, vital signs and the Sunrise Mobility modules.

The Dudley Group signed with Allscripts in December 2016 in a deal worth £32 million.

The contract covers a length of 10 years and will see the trust deploy Sunrise clinical documentation, electronic prescribing, order communications, test results and clinical correspondence functionalities.

Allscripts was chosen by the Dudley Group to deliver a suite of integrated solutions covering administrative, clinical, primary and social care data sharing capabilities across the trust’s three hospital sites, as well as other stakeholders in the local health economy.

This includes the supplier’s cloud-based, dbMotion health information exchange platform, which was deployed as a proof of concept to local GPs on 9 May.

dbMotion enables the aggregation of health data from various disparate EPRs and clinical information systems across a given community and delivers it to clinicians at the point of care.

On 9 May, the trust deployed a “first of type” proof of concept to general practitioners to local GPs, to demonstrate the ability to share data across the health economy and provide a platform to integrate Sunrise and dbMotion in the coming months.

Medical director Dr Julian Hobbs claimed that “meaningful impact on patient care and safety” was observed “within hours” of the Sunrise EPR going live.

He added: “The partnership between the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust and Allscripts will enable us to continue to develop integrated models of care for our patient population and equip us with a sound platform of clinical decision support and a maturing EPR roadmap.”

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust comprises 3 hospital sites with approximately 650 beds—Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, the Guest Outpatient Centre in Dudley and the Corbett Outpatient Centre in Stourbridge, serving a population of around 450,000.

Speaking in December 2016 Mark Stanton, chief information officer at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation trust, said the roll-out of Sunrise was expected to be completed by June 2018.

However, following the appointment of a new CEO and key board members joining the organisation in early 2017, Stanton told Digital Health News that the trust had changed its priorities “with a focus on improving outcomes for deteriorating patients”, which meant bringing forward eObs and eSepsis modules for May 2018 along with a population health platform.

Additional functionality will be delivered “at frequent intervals” over the remainder of 2018, Stanton said.