County Durham and Darlington NHS FT has chosen Cerner to implement the Cerner Millennium EHR solution, making a patient's full record available electronically for healthcare professionals in one place.

Clinicians and other support staff at the trust were given the opportunity to be involved in the ongoing assessment of different available systems from various bidding companies.

At a trust board meeting in December 2020, support was given to move forward with the contract award to Cerner.

WHY IT MATTERS

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance for clinicians to have quick and full access to a patient's history in order to make the best-informed decision about their care.

The new system will mean all patient information will be available electronically, on a screen, at any hospital and any location. It will aim to improve patient experience by changing the way patients are admitted, cared for and discharged.

On approval of the case at the trust board, the chairman, Paul Keane, stated that “This [EHR] will be a huge boost for our trust and our staff, but more importantly it will enhance the quality of services and care to our patients.”

Distie Profit, managing director for Cerner in the UK added: “Informed decision making forms the basis of safe and reliable care. Making relevant and up-to-date patient information available at the point of care in a proven and integrated platform is fundamental to enable this."

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Cerner is one of the health IT companies to join forces with some of the biggest health tech organisations for the new Vaccine Credential Initiative launched to enable more secure access to digital vaccination records.

Last week, Cerner confirmed that it had suspended political donations to any "candidate or official who took part in or incited violence" in Washington, D.C.

ON THE RECORD

The trust’s chief executive, Sue Jacques, said: “This is such an important development for the trust and will help us truly transform how we treat our patients.

“Our EPR will replace several existing systems and provide clinicians with a comprehensive source of patient information – including relevant clinical information – quickly and securely at the point that care is delivered. The EPR will modernise and improve the way we deliver care across the trust and revolutionise how we work with our partners to deliver care.

“Currently, patient information is collected in a number of different ways using a number of different paper forms and computer systems; these systems don’t always talk to each other. The new system will give us a full patient record, available in multiple locations, which will improve how we care for our patients."