Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has achieved HIMSS EMRAM (Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model) Stage 7, confirming that the trust has met “the highest international quality standard for excellence in digital and data”.
The achievement follows an on-site assessment this week which saw HIMSS inspectors observing as clinical staff used the trust’s EPR and electronic data and analytics functions to demonstrate the embedded use of digital throughout clinical practice. John Rayner, leading the assessment team, called LHCH a “fantastic hospital which has thoroughly embraced the power of technology and innovation to absolutely transform everything that they do.”
He added that enthusiasm was “palpable the minute we walked through the door” and lauded managerial and clinical teams for their passion, stating: “It is amazing to see such commitment and how this energy has improved patient safety and the overall quality of clinical care.”
2013 saw LHCH move away from paper records to introduce “fully digital ways of documenting patient care and accessing clinical information”, and HTN reported on the trust achieving HIMSS Stage 6 here.
Kate Warriner, chief digital and information officer states: “While it is clearly a tremendous achievement to have received EMRAM Stage 7 accreditation, we know there’s even more we can do. As such, we will continue to look for ways to harness digital technologies to further optimise patient care, safety and effectiveness of our services.”
In other news from the region, in December we reported on the news that Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust announced the appointment of a new joint chief digital officer role with Liverpool Women’s, with Liverpool Women’s chief information officer Matt Connor taking up the post from last month.
On the topic of EPRs, last month we covered how Nottingham University Hospitals has selected its EPR supplier; that NHS England published a £16 million prior information notice for the provision of ‘Tiger Teams’ to support EPR delivery; and Jersey’s comptroller and auditor general published a review on the nation’s EPR implementation, highlighting the need for “greater focus on effective stakeholder and user engagement.
