Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS FT has gone live with a new electronic patient record (EPR) system on one of its inpatient wards.
The system, for recording and accessing patient information in inpatient areas, has gone live with a ‘test bed’ launch on Ward 5 at its Moseley Hall Hospital. It marks the first inpatient facility to go-live with the solution and supports the trust in realising its ‘paper-light’ ambition.
The trust said the only remaining paper-based record keeping on the ward is for medicines administration, until the launch of an electronic prescribing and medicines administration (EPMA) system in 2022.
Ben Richards, Adult and Specialist Rehabilitation Divisional Director, commented: “We’re so pleased to have finally launched the electronic patient record in Ward 5. Getting to this stage has been the result of really good engagement from all the nurses, doctors, therapists and other members of the inpatient teams who have worked really hard in collaboration with the colleagues handling the technical and governance side of it.
“It’s a big step closer to achieving our mission of ensuring that the right information is readily accessible by the right clinician at the right time at the point of care at all times.”
Staff on the ward are now working with the trust’s digital technology services and its information governance team to assess the benefits. Following feedback from staff and an evaluation on the benefits for patient care, the system will then be refined, if required, and launched across all inpatient areas.
After this staff of the deployment, the trust then aims to make the system accessible in community settings and to form a component of the shared care record across Birmingham and Solihull.
In April 2021, Arden & GEM CSU published an evaluation report into the engagement campaign supporting the shared care record programme, noting a planned go-live of the system during 2021.
