Princess Alexandra Hospital launches electronic patient record system

6 August 2014

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust in Essex, UK, has gone live with the Cambio COSMIC integrated electronic patient record system across its hospital site, external services and outpatient clinics.

The Trust and Swedish company Cambio Healthcare Systems have worked together for 18 months to replace an obsolete patient administration system.

The EPR system holds patient details in a single central database, providing healthcare staff with instant access to accurate patient information and effective tools to communicate, or refer patients, across multiple healthcare settings. It provides a more joined up and accessible healthcare system for the local population of 350,000, enhanced support for care in the community and opportunities for increased patient involvement in healthcare decisions through on-line patient access to their health records.

The EPR is an integral part of PAHT’s ‘Building for Excellence’ initiative that aims to improve clinical and administrative working practices across the hospital and in the local community, whilst delivering significant operational performance improvements and efficiency savings.

“This is a remarkable achievement for PAHT,” said the trust’s CEO, Phil Morley. “COSMIC is already helping clinicians, from all specialties and disciplines, to share information more effectively and work better together to improve the health outcomes of their patients. In this partnership with Cambio we are at the start of a journey that will enable us to take significant steps towards becoming paperless, whilst helping to fulfil, in the longer term, our ambitions for the trust.”

Anthony Lundrigan, the trust’s chief information officer said: “The COSMIC EPR signifies a turning point for the trust as the system is much more advanced than the 26 year old patient administration system we had before. This will enable us to deliver significant improvements for patients and help us with our efficiency challenges. I want to thank our patients for being so supportive and to congratulate the staff on getting to grips so quickly with such a big change in the way they work.”

PAHT and Cambio have been forging a strong long-term partnership from the start. “The successful launch of the COSMIC EPR system is testament to early engagement with clinicians, clearly defined and realistic goals, a robust business case, change management and benefits process and the right technology,” Morley
said.

Cambio’s UK managing director Philip May said: “Our shared patient-led vision with PAHT and development of IT systems in close co-operation with those working in healthcare - the doctors, nurses, administrators and IT technicians – means that our systems successfully support frontline staff as they make day-to-day decisions on how to deliver the best possible care for their patients.”

The programme’s first phase enables the registering, admitting, transferring and discharging of patients, the delivery of an outpatient clinic appointments system, the installation of streamlined patient-tracking technology and, for the first time, the digitalisation of the hospital’s maternity care records. Community midwives are also being issued with mobile Wi-Fi tablets to use in patients’ homes.

Moving forward, phase two will include ordering and reporting on a wide range of healthcare tests, including imaging, and built in e-prescribing and medicines management.

The COSMIC system’s flexible nature and the long-term partnership approach set out by Cambio and PAHT means that the trust can continue to deliver against its ambitious technology strategy even as demands and challenges change.

May said: “Our experience as market leader in Sweden means we can provide NHS organisations with confidence that their staff are working with the right information at every stage in the care pathway, creating an efficient and personalised healthcare service, which supports the integration of care.”

Source: Cambio