Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC) at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) has been successfully validated against the EMRAM Stage 6 standards by HIMSS.

The EMRAM, or Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model is an international quality standard which measures the adoption and maturity of a health facility’s inpatient EMR capabilities from 0 to 7. 

Staff at the NOC were the first at the trust to go live with the Cerner Millennium electronic patient record (EPR) platform, which helps clinicians securely access clinical information about their patients.

OUH plans to build on the success at the NOC and pursue Stage 6 accreditation across other trust sites, with the intention of aiming for the Stage 7 accreditation in the future.

WHY IT MATTERS 

Achieving Stage 6 of the EMRAM demonstrates the use of technology, data and analytics to support the delivery of high-quality inpatient care.           

THE LARGER CONTEXT 

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust recently became the first UK healthcare trust to be awarded Stage 7 on the EMRAM.

Meanwhile, London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS FT was awarded Stage 6 on the EMRAM in July and also achieved Stage 7 on the HIMSS O-EMRAM, which outpatient EMR capabilities. 

ON THE RECORD 

Paul Altmann, chief clinical information officer at OUH, said: “This accolade puts us among an elite group of leading hospitals and medical centres across the world that use electronic systems as a tool to support clinicians in providing high quality patient care.”

David Walliker, chief digital officer at OUH, said: “At the heart of the trust’s strategy both over the last five years and the next five years has been the concept of digital by default. What this means is to convert all our care workflows to digital ones, not just digitise the paper-based process in place prior to digital conversion.”

Simon Noel, chief nurse informatics officer at OUH, said: “During the course of our journey to become fully digital we continue to strive to enhance the safety and quality of our patients’ care through the use of technology, but also continue to look for ways in which the technology can be used to improve outcomes and the experience of our patients and staff.”

Distie Profit, managing director of Cerner UK, said: “We are thrilled to be partnered with Oxford University Hospitals as they continue to realise the benefits that the digitisation of care can brings to patients, staff, and the broader health system surrounding the trust – now recognised through the HIMSS EMRAM Level 6 accreditation.”

John Rayner, regional director EMEA HIMSS Analytics, said: “The hospital have worked hard to achieve this Stage 6 recognition for the NOC. It is good to see IT security being taken so seriously. All aspects of the security, business continuity and disaster recovery processes are entirely consistent and compliant with the EMRAM standards.”