Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust it to launch it Altera electronic patient record system in November.
The EPR named “Archie” is labelled “the most significant digital transformation programme the trust has ever undertaken”, the trust shared.
Implementation work began last year, with core elements relating to inpatients, outpatients, electronic prescribing, theatres and minor injuries and reporting modules will go live in November 2025.
Tamara Everington, the trust’s chief medical officer, commented: “The Archie EPR programme is not just a technological upgrade; it represents a fundamental cultural shift in the way QVH operates. Patient care will remain at the heart of our mission with this change enabling staff to deliver care more efficiently by being able to access digitised records when they need it.”
Wider trend: EPR and EPR optimisation
For a recent HTN Now session on the topic of EPRs now and in the future, we were joined by digital leaders including Sally Mole, senior digital programme manager – digital portfolio delivery team at The Dudley Group; Keltie Jamieson, CHIO at Bermuda Hospitals Board; and David Newey, digital health expert and executive CDIO. We heard in depth from our panel in terms of their EPR journey, sharing their approach, examples, challenges and lessons learned. We went on to discuss the current position with EPRs, the opportunity, and the current need. Looking ahead, we discussed what the future of EPRs looks like in the short, medium and longer term.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust has shared the launch of its EPR will be slightly delayed. Initially scheduled for this month, the trust’s EPR will now go live in November, replacing multiple paper-based workflows with a single, integrated system. The board notes to be on track for the planned November go-live date, with a technical gateway focused on data robustness and resilience, and “training for staff gaining momentum, using both online and classroom formats”.
The board of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in its September meeting, welcomed the successful go-live of its Epic EPR, however noted the scale of post-implementation effort required. Following the go-live of the EPR in May, the board stated that its “performance is now recovering”, and “acknowledged the significant operational and data quality disruption following go-live”, noting “the scale of post-implementation effort required to stabilise systems and sustain safety”.
