United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH) has announced the preferred supplier for its electronic patient record, to Insight Direct (UK) implementing a Nervecentre solution, subject to contract and approval of full business case.
The trust has been investing in its digital infrastructure as part of the EPR programme, with chief digital information officer Michael Humber commenting that ULTH is “ensuring that we have a right sized, resilient, secure and capable technology platform and end-user devices in place to support our EPR from the start”.
He adds that the identification of the preferred supplier brings the trust closer to the “transformative change” that the EPR is expected to bring, and notes that benefits will “go far beyond the digital arena and will enable positive changes that will transform our services for patients and improve the working lives of healthcare staff across our region”.
Last week, for HTN Now we hosted a panel of experts from across the health sector to discuss scaling health technologies across organisational and regional boundaries. Will Monaghan, group CDIO at University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire talked about how in the Midlands a decision has been made by a group of CIOs, CCIOs and CNIOs to largely select Nervecentre as the EPR in the region, and to work on implementing this same technology.
“We looked at what opportunities using the same technology gave us,” Will said, citing examples such as doctors in training being able to train using the same systems, and the increased ease of movement between hospitals or trusts as a result of being familiar with those systems. “If we’re all going to be on the same EPR, why couldn’t we give our universities, our nursing schools and our medical schools training on those? That would allow doctors in training and nurses coming out on placements to feel entirely comfortable with the technology they’re going to be using from the very first day.”
EPRs in the spotlight
In recent news around electronic patient records, at the start of October HTN highlighted how Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, along with Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, issued a tender sharing their intention to establish a framework for a data partner to support their unified EPR programme.
Also in October, we explored EPRs and how to add value by examining news, views and research on the subject; check out our editorial feature here.
In terms of strategy, we looked into the maternity strategy from Bedfordshire Hospitals which highlights EPR plans for 2025; and we examined The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust’s latest strategy which also places focus on the EPR.
For further insights around EPRs from health tech professionals, check out our coverage of a recent HTN Now panel discussion on connecting care and extending EPR value through mobility and connected devices; and another on planning for EPR optimisation.
