Annual Members' Meeting 2020

Strategic Objective 4: Digital

Using digital technology and innovations to improve clinical pathways, safety and efficiency, and empower patients.

Our key achievements over the last year are:

Electronic Patient Record Contract

In December 2019 we signed a 10-year contract with Cerner Limited to implement their electronic patient record. This was a substantial procurement exercise run jointly with Royal Surrey Foundation Trust. The preparations for project initiation commenced immediately, centred largely around increasing the significant staff resource required for a programme of this size. The official project start is in June 2020 (delayed slightly due to COVID-19 outbreak), and will take approximately 18 to 22 months to implement. This is due to the data migration from legacy systems and ensuring we map out the changes and improvements to our processes and clinical practice.

Replacing an existing patient administration system with a new electronic record requires a large amount of preparation, but is worth the investment when the benefits are considered. The overall aim is to make our safe hospital safer, and make it easier and safer for staff to provide care. 

The suite includes the following modules:

• Patient Administration System and Scheduling
• Patient Flow
• Emergency Department
• Theatres
• Critical Care
• Integrated Electronic Observations

Virtual Clinics

Our therapies department are good early adopters of innovation, digital or otherwise, and so they volunteered to pioneer a national offering of a solution that facilitates virtual clinics (Attend Anywhere). This was fortuitous because in March we found ourselves rolling it out Trust-wide in just two weeks as part of our response to COVID-19.

Electronic Diagnostic Orders

This year we have implemented an electronic ordering solution for diagnostic tests in radiology and pathology. We have done this in conjunction with our pathology partnership service, Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Service (BSPS). We initially worked with GPs so that they could order their tests using the new system, and then rolled it out across the Trust in both inpatient and outpatient areas. The benefits have been in the reduction of paper which in turn increases the accuracy of information and improves the turnaround times of the tests and results.

Patient Level Information Flows

Our information team have worked with our operational teams to provide dashboards that capture live data that can then be used to provide greater insight and support for clinical decisions.