Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with their electronic patient record system, with the NHS highlighting that the go-live marks the 189th NHS trust to launch an EPR – meeting the government’s target for 90 percent adoption ahead of the December 2023 target.
The trust describes the EPR as a “modern and efficient system” helping them to take “record-keeping to the next level and enhancing patient safety”.
Commenting on the launch, Sheffield Health and Social Care’s chief clinical information officer Raihan Talukdar comments that the trust is “embracing digital transformation in healthcare”, adding: “The launch of the first phase of our electronic patient record in October marked a significant step forward for us.
“Our overall aim is to put our service users at the heart of everything we do. A comprehensive electronic patient record helps us to give compassionate and safe care to the people we care for and support. We believe our electronic patient record will help us to help our service users have better experiences in our care and streamline processes for our staff. It’s early days, but the potential impact on patient care is truly exciting.”
The most recently published summary report from Sheffield Health and Social Care’s board of directors, shared at the end of September, notes some of the challenges that the trust has faced in preparing for its EPR to go live. It shares concerns around “effectively addressing inadequate legacy systems and technology caused by complex historic system issues” which require ongoing monitoring and maintenance, and the potential impact on patient safety and clinical effectiveness brought about by delays in procurement and roll-out.
The document also highlights low levels of mandatory training regarding information governance across the trust, raising concerns of a lack of adequate arrangements for cyber security, along with potential challenges around staffing capacity issues.
In related news, the trust is part of the launch of an “ambitious” new digital healthcare hub in South Yorkshire, which it hopes is “set to lead the UK’s digital healthcare revolution and address inequalities in patient care”.
On EPR, our most recent webinar discussion featured the NHSE blueprinting team and representatives from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, who talked about the implementation process and some of the challenges and successes from their own roll-out.
