Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS foundation trust and Royal Surrey NHS foundation trust have announced plans to implement a new integrated electronic patient records (EPR) system across both trusts.

WHY IT MATTERS

Powered by Cerner Millennium, the new EPR will replace paper-based records and processes and will enable staff to access a single and integrated source of clinical information containing pertinent patient details. This will include key information such as test results, medications, discharge summaries and other relevant information associated to their care.

A shared EPR system will streamline clinical information, combining the population of the two trusts of approximately 800,000 people across six sites, and a wider population of 1.3 million for cancer services.

With this easy access to information, the aim is to make clinicians better equipped to make informed decisions in a faster and more efficient way. The shared Cerner Millennium domain will enable the sharing of resources and skillset between the two organisations, providing the potential to jointly restructure care pathways where needed.

THE LARGER TREND

Last year, health secretary Matt Hancock first revealed plans to launch the ‘digital aspirant’ programme for hospitals in England, in the aim to accelerate deployment and uptake of technology that is instrumental in their digital transformation.

It was not until March 2020, that NHSX announced the first wave of 23 trusts that will benefit from the NHS ‘digital aspirants’ programme, sharing £28 million of technology funding between them in the first year.

Both Ashford and St Peter’s and Royal Surrey were included in the initial list, alongside 21 other trusts.

ON THE RECORD

Simon Marshall, senior responsible officer for the project said: “We are delighted to be working with Cerner as we embark on the journey to deliver on our mission of providing an exceptional, safe and efficient healthcare experience for our patients and staff.” 

“This is a great opportunity for us to transform the way we deliver care, moving from a paper-based way of working to an integrated 21^st century solution. This will enable us to operate at the forefront of digital care and is an important milestone as recognised Digital Aspirant Trusts.”

Distie Profit, managing director for Cerner 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."