London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS FT (GOSH) was awarded Stage 6 on the EMRAM and O-EMRAM by HIMSS this week, making it the first hospital in Europe to achieve both validations.

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, while O-EMRAM measures its outpatient capabilities.

John Rayner, regional director for EMEA at HIMSS, praised GOSH for its good use of structured data in the outpatient department and said that its clinicians used the flexibility of the Epic system to the maximum.

The hospital is now looking to achieve O-EMRAM Stage 7 as soon as possible, he added.

WHY IT MATTERS

GOSH has been using technology to adapt to the current COVID-19 crisis which has necessitated more remote patient consultations.

Rayner observed the hospital has been using the patient portal MyGOSH alongside Zoom to assist remote consultations. MyGOSH allows patients to carry out tasks such as messaging clinicians, looking at results, and changing medical appointments.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Meanwhile, Sunderland Royal Hospital in the UK was recently awarded Stage 6 on the EMRAM by HIMSS. The American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon also achieved Stage 6 of EMRAM and O-EMRAM earlier this year.

ON THE RECORD

In a joint statement from GOSH, Richard Collins, director of transformation, Dr Shankar Sridharan, chief clinical information officer and Helen Vigne, head of EPR programme, said: “We are delighted to have achieved HIMSS level 6 accreditation to both EMRAM and O-EMRAM.

“This makes us amongst the most digitally advanced hospitals in Europe and this achievement is testament to how the whole hospital has pulled together to make the best use of our clinical systems to deliver safer, kinder and more effective care.

“Using the MyGOSH portal means patients and their families are now much more in control of managing their own conditions and it means a more joined-up approach for other healthcare providers across the whole patient journey.

“We know there is still work to do to maintain this accreditation and ensuring high standards of digital security remains a top priority for the trust, but at GOSH we have a long history of step-change innovation and research to help improve the quality of care and outcomes for our patients.”

Rayner said: “This was clearly a hospital that had embraced technology to enhance patient safety and improve the overall clinical care. The hospital would not have coped as well over the last few months had that technology not been in place. It has demonstrated to me the power of EMR in all settings- both in-patient and outpatient, but most importantly in the patient’s home.”

In September, the team will be speaking at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event, where they will expand on some of these key issues and learnings in greater detail.