Industry leaders convened yesterday in a webinar hosted by Allscripts Sunrise EPR to understand how stakeholders are driving the digital transformation to provide better care and promote healthier communities.

Caroline Waine, electronic patient record deputy manager at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS FT, shared the trust's EMRAM journey, in the session 'Tipping the EMRAM scales - Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.'

The trust has been digital for eight years and over the next few months will be going through the process of configuration training in order to reach EMRAM Stage 6. "Hopefully by October, it will be live in all areas of the hospital. So any time after October, we will be looking to reassess and do the questionnaire again and hopefully hit that level six," explained Waine.

The trust has also been rated as 'Outstanding' for two consecutive terms by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a feat the webinar host described as "relatively unprecedented".

The trust has adopted a paper-light environment, using a limited amount of paper and then analysing the paper to determine whether or not they can move away from it. Waine said: "We still use a little bit of paper [...] we are massively paper light, all the paper just gets scanned into PDMS in the end, so everything is attached to the patient's record."

Waine also shared the key areas that have helped get the trust to EMRAM 5: "I think it's probably a mixture of everything. Our exec team are really interested in being digitally enhanced. This closed loop, I think Alder Hey may have done it, but we'll be the first for Allscripts in the UK.

"We've got a new exec on board, and she is really heavily involved in the digital world. All the execs, nurses on the shop floor, the clinicians - they've all got loads of ideas of how to enhance the work, and to make it safe for the patients."

On future plans for Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS FT, Waine revealed: "We will be a forming a joint venture with Alder Hey. So we're going to be expanding. We're going to look at eConsents. There's a lot of digitally heavy things coming in the pipeline. And then I think we're going to develop an interface between Allscripts and the pharmacy system."

WHY IT MATTERS

EMRAM, or the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, measures the adoption and maturity of a health facility’s inpatient EMR capabilities from 0 to 7. The assessment questionnaire takes into account hospital statistics, health informatics overview, software applications, software usage, electronic ordering, closed loop administration and IT security.

Reaching HIMSS EMRAM 6 & 7 represents a byproduct of a robust EPR plan which results in a more paper-light environment and improved patient care and patient safety.

Waine listed the following plan and outcomes for the trust:

• SCM system update FR4
• Implement KMBA
• Implement Blood 360 – work with Allscripts to interface data between systems
• Implement Sample 360 – work with Allscripts to interface data between systems
• Improve patient safety – right patient, right drug, right patient, right blood

THE LARGER CONTEXT

In a recent HIMSS Digital Maturity Series webinar, insights were shared on the steps Taiwan has taken towards creating a cohesive digital health ecosystem and going from EMRAM Stage 6 to 7.

At the end of last year, Sunderland Royal Hospital became the first hospital in the north of England to attain Stage 7 of EMRAM.

In another first, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS FT was also awarded Stage 7 O-EMRAM. The UK hospital is the first health institution in England to achieve the validation.

ON THE RECORD

Waine said: "The advice I'd like to give other trusts is to get the clinicians involved from the beginning. It's their system, get them involved, get them decision-making. The users in the end, they love it now, they wouldn't be without it. It's so much easier to find documentation and audit to report on. So definitely get the clinicians involved and do a lot of testing."