Sheffield Health Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust has shared benefits realisation and optimisation work associated with its Rio EPR programme following initial implementation in March 2025, providing a revised timeline for delivery, as well as insight into performance issues and resolutions.
Following “some delays” with aspects of the optimisation programme, the board hopes to have delivered elements including patient flow management, personal demographic service synchronisation, electronic document management store, and eLearning modules by the end of May 2026.
The patient flow management solution runs via wall-mounted interactive touchscreen monitors in inpatient ares, the trust states, and has been operational since 15 May, utilised in daily bed meetings, and with on-site presence from digital teams to support inpatient staff with its use. Testing of eDischarge letters was successfully completed at the end of April, and is expected to be live in all areas by the end of May. A total of 16 eLearning packages have been developed in “bitesize sections”, the trust goes on, covering everything from the fundamentals of Rio system use to the creation of assessments. The training is currently being tested and is expected to also be completed by the end of May.
Downtime was scheduled at the beginning of May to accommodate the migration of the Rio electronic document management store to new server infrastructure, with an issue relating to a local testing device initially leading to this downtime being extended. “Lessons learnt are around ensuring we test with multiple clinical staff who are on duty at the time, not just IT staff,” the trust shares. “Also to ensure we have IT support for any future work, not just the IT on-call resource.” Work is hoped to be completed by the end of the month pending internal approval to proceed.
In April, a large number of calls were recorded with the Rio support team around issues with system performance, the board notes, and it was identified that server infrastructure “was not adequately scaled to support a trust of our size”. Approval was sought for urgent upgrades, and work was commenced by The Access Group to take all servers from two CPU Cores to four, and from 8GB RAM to 12GB RAM.
On benefits realised to date, the trust highlights that its digital maturity assessment score has increased from 1.5 to 2.2, with further improvement expected alongside expanded functionality. Improvements in data accessibility and alignment with NHS Oversight Framework reporting is enabling “more accurate” benchmarking against peers, and better interoperability and connectivity with NHS Spine and GP Connect is promoting efficiency in clinical and administrative processes. Also reported are enhancements in progress toward Cyber Essentials certification and the DSPT.
“Clinicians report several benefits which collectively contribute to productivity gains and improved user experience: the system is faster; it autosaves so there is no risk of information being lost and duplication of effort to re-input; there are fewer steps needed to log in to the system and the system is stable, so downtime is greatly reduced,” Sheffield Health states. “The implementation of Rio has supported the reduction of the trust’s costs for the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts by £85k since March 2025 to date. With the implementation of digital patient reported outcome measures, we have saved approximately £700 in clinician time (non-cash releasing).”
Since roll out took place in two tranches, there are currently differing levels of system maturity across the trust’s services, the board reports, with teams from the second tranche using a more optimised configuration, and tranche one teams needing refresher training to allow benefits to be measured. A phased approach to this is proposed, with tranche two to be the focus from June 2026.
Updated benefits are also offered from the rationalisation process in 2024, with a reduction in clinical correspondence delivering a £27k full year saving; a £34k full year saving recorded for the reduction in clinical administration; a £510k full year saving relating to time savings and improvements in efficiency and productivity; and a £150k full year saving through the reduction in waiting lists with improved clinic utilisation.
A report is expected once the optimisation phase is completed, analysing planned costs alongside actual costs and delays to the EPR programme.
Wider trend: EPR
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust is progressing with its EPR programme, noting the beginning of clinical validation workshops and workforce engagement initiatives. The CCIO of Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust has taken to LinkedIn to share an update on progress toward the trust’s scheduled 2027 go-live of the Rio EPR system. Referring to the coming week as a “pivotal” one in the journey toward go-live, Venkatesh Muthukrishnan, CCIO, shared that it marks the beginning of clinical validation workshops which will see clinicians coming together to inform the development of the system.
United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has issued a pipeline notice to procure an EPR implementation delivery partner to support its EPR programme. The trust states that the notice is to inform forward planning, ahead of an approximate date of 1 July 2026 given for the publication of a tender notice. Estimated contract dates run from 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2028, for a period of a year and seven months.
The board of University Hospitals Dorset has shared a series of updates around its HealthSet EPR programme and wider digital priorities. With a contract signed in March 2026 with Epic, the HealthSet programme is now underway, with core implementation activity reportedly to begin in late summer 2026, and a “big bang” go-live scheduled for April 2028. Preparation activities have included “lessons learned” engagement with a number of other organisations who have already implemented Epic, and a stakeholder visit to Epic’s UK headquarters in early May 2026.
