East Cheshire NHS Trust has published its latest quality and safety strategy to 2031, sharing ambitions to increase direct patient care time by more than ten percent, expand virtual appointments, reduce duplicate paper-digital documentation by 75 percent, and to support staff so that 90 percent achieve digital competency by 2028.
A focus will be on improving digital clinical system interfaces with the trust’s other existing digital systems, it shares, setting out the target for all hospital-based services using the digital clinical system to support care delivery by 2028. Another major area of work will be virtual care, with virtual consultation options to be introduced across all supported care homes, and the proportion of speech and language therapy appointments delivered virtually to be increased to 40 percent, by December 2028. Digital access to therapy will similarly be expanded, with 100 percent of patients requiring follow-up to be offered either a telephone or virtual review as the first option where clinically appropriate.
The board also offered an update on its digital clinical system programme, noting a transition to business as usual. “The programme has met its core strategic objectives, including establishing a single, integrated patient record, improving clinical safety processes, and reducing reliance on paper-based systems, while supporting real-time access to information and improved care coordination across organisations,” it states. “Over 7,500 staff have been trained across both organisations during the course of the programme.”
Several core components continue to require further work, however, including the critical care module, iProcedures (theatres/anaesthetics), medical device integration, and pathology/order comms. Significant learnings have been captured that will inform optimisation and future digital programmes, the trust continues, particularly around data quality, business as usual readiness, and supplier engagement. Work is ongoing on improving data quality, with an executive-led working group established to ensure progress.
Wider trend: NHS Trust digital transformation
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust has utilised a virtual work in ITU, improved discharge summaries, optimised its EPR and refreshed core infrastructure, its board discussed this month. The trust highlighted ambitions to identify and digitise paper-based processes, to make the best use of existing digital solutions, and to identify new tech or suppliers that can help transform services. It notes progress with short and medium-term planning for digital investment, including reinvestment in RPA in ITU services and the procurement of AVT in outpatients and ED. Improvements to core EPRs have enabled better patient discharge workflows, including the introduction of the Manchester triage workflow, and the roll out of a mobile working solution for community staff, the trust adds.
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is set to go live with its Epic EPR on 23 July, said to be a step forward in the One Devon programme forming a single, shared digital system to bring together hospital and specialist community services in Devon. Following go-lives across Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in 2020, as well as Torbay and South Devon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust earlier this year, the move will see all three organisations able to access patient records throughout the region “quickly and securely”, UHP notes. Anticipated outcomes shared by the trust include a reduced need for patients to repeat information to different teams, improved continuity and safety of care, and better experiences of care for patients.
Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has marked progress and ambitions around AI, EPR, robotics, and digital innovation in its latest trust strategy to 2031. The trust reports having made “significant advancements” in the use of digital technologies to improve patient care, highlighting its EPR roll out, and the roll out of robotic surgery in areas including colorectal, gynaecology, upper gastrointestinal, and general surgery. The use of AI triage and clinical prioritisation in areas such as dermatology and imaging is improving access for patients and freeing-up clinician time to focus on cases requiring further investigation, it shares. An AI steering group with Royal Surrey is also reportedly supporting collaboration around technological innovation and the use of AI in digital services.
