Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust has partnered with The Access Group to launch Rio as their EPR system, with the aim to “transform care delivery” across the trust.
With the EPR system in place, the trust has noted how they can now “connect multiple systems into one” and take advantage of “enhanced security”, allowing staff to access patient information quickly while also protecting sensitive data. This aligns with the trust’s wider plans to “streamline workflows across the organisation” and improve the patient experience through the reduction of administrative tasks, with CIO and director of digital, Lisa Yates, highlighting how “initial feedback from staff has been positive”.
The introduction of Rio has also been welcomed by NHS England’s Transformation Directorate, emphasised by a comment from NHS England’s director of digital transformation, Dermot Ryan, who said: “The major upgrade of the electronic patient record system at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust marks a significant achievement. By integrating multiple systems into one unified platform, this project provides the potential to boost productivity by streamlining workflows, reducing administrative tasks, and improving data accessibility. It also sets the digital foundations for many innovative technologies which will further support clinical practice and enhance patient care.”
EPR implementation: the wider trend
Northampton General Hospital’s Nervecentre EPR is set to go live on 28 June, replacing the organisation’s current mix of paper and digital systems. It will also complement the Northamptonshire Care Record, supporting more joined-up care across the region, with staff able to view up-to-date information from devices such as tablets and mobile phones, improving coordination between departments and services.
Patients Know Best has been selected to provide a single patient record system for the Government of Lagos State in Nigeria. This will form part of a partnership between Interswitch Group and the government, introducing the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform and allowing the government to host health records for over 20 million citizens.
We recently spoke with David Newey, interim chief digital transformation officer at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, about the future of EPRs. David spoke about some of the challenges of successful EPR implementation, with a particular focus on the financial pressures within the NHS and healthcare and how vendors can better support this transformation.
Earlier this month, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust confirmed the supplier of its EPR system, to implement TPP’s SystmOne. They noted three key aims as part of the project, including: enhancing patient care, empowering our people, and building a system with a strong foundation for future advancements.
