South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland is preparing to go live with its electronic patient record programme, encompass, on 9 November.
The trust has been sharing updates and building momentum with regards to the EPR launch over the last few months, referring to the move to digital records as “the biggest transformation in health and social care here in a generation”.
South Eastern Trust shared a video via its Twitter page, with Dr Afzan Chaudhry from Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, talking about the prospect of every person in Northern Ireland having a single health and social care record.
The future of digital healthcare is here and it's nothing short of revolutionary!
We're edging closer to Go-Live with our new digital patient record system – encompass 📲 🏥
With 15 days to go hear from a Cambridge Dr who waved goodbye to paper patient records 9 years ago 👇 pic.twitter.com/SJ2kfiHH5Z
— South Eastern Trust (@setrust) October 25, 2023
The trust’s Twitter page also shared updates on how its staff are preparing for the roll-out, detailing the work of its admin staff in transferring patient data from their old systems and paper records to the new encompass system, as well as the role of super users in getting ready to empower and support their colleagues in the roll-out.
Roisin Coulter, chief executive of the South Eastern Trust, commented: “Our staff have been working tirelessly and training every day in order to implement encompass on November 9, when this digital innovation will go-live. At a later stage of the roll-out, everyone across Northern Ireland will be able to install an app on their mobile device called ‘MyCare’ where they will be able to access their own patient records. This will be revolutionary. It will of course be a time of change and adjustment for our staff as they get used to the system, so we are asking the public to be patient during the first few weeks of go- live. There will inevitably be disruption to services in the initial period but every effort will be made to keep this to a minimum. The long-term gains for service delivery are immense.”
In other go-live EPR news, last month we spoke to Idea Health’s director of training and change, Nick Robertson, on reducing the productivity slump at go-live, planning an EPR training rollout, and embracing learning as a continuous journey.
We also spoke to David Newey, CIO at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, about the trust’s EPR go-live which took place back in March of this year.
