Sunderland Royal Hospital has become the only hospital in the north of England to be awarded the highest attainable accreditation on the EMRAM.

EMRAM, or the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, measures the adoption and maturity of a health facility’s EMR capabilities from 0 to 7.

The hospital, which is recognised as a Global Digital Exemplar (GDE), was awarded Stage 7 following a two day virtual assessment, by HIMSS assessors after previously achieving Stage 6 in January.

WHY IT MATTERS  

The accolade means Sunderland Royal Hospital joins an elite few organisations around the world to achieve the digital standard.

Meditech EPR is used across the hospital, ensuring clinical teams have access to live patient information from all departments. The system also allows staff to prescribe medication and integrate to monitors and record vital signs from the bedside using scanning technology and digital patient wristbands. It also integrates with the Great North Care Record (Health Information Exchange), meaning information gathered is available to other healthcare settings across the north east and North Cumbria.

A shared laboratory information management system is enabled across South Tyneside District Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, allowing clinical teams live access to test results as soon as they are available. 

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Sunderland Royal Hospital joins Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT, which in October became the first UK healthcare trust to be awarded Stage 7 on the EMRAM.

ON THE RECORD

Dr Kevin Joisce, consultant in emergency medicine and chief clinical information officer at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Technology is embedded in everything we do, in all clinical processes and our nursing workflows to an extent where we have successfully eliminated our reliance on historic paper-based systems at Sunderland Royal Hospital.”

Andy Hart, director of information management and technology at the trust, said: “Embracing technology has long been at the heart of our strategic thinking and a tremendous amount of work has taken place by all of our clinical teams to reach this important milestone for Sunderland Royal Hospital and for the NHS as a whole.”

John Rayner, HIMSS regional director, said: “In speaking with and observing the medical and nursing teams it was easy to see that digital processes and associated workflows have become absolutely embedded in the way that this hospital works. There is a clear commitment here to use technology to improve patient safety and the overall quality of clinical care.”  

Ken Bremner MBE, chief executive of the trust, said: “As a trust we will now continue to build on this great achievement at Sunderland Royal Hospital and keep pushing the boundaries of innovation even further to extend digital solutions into how we interact and engage with patients on a daily basis.”