27.10.14
‘Switch on’ for £200m electronic patient record system at CUH
A £200m electronic patient record system has gone live at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), which will eventually make two hospitals paperless.
The system at Addenbrooke's and Rosie hospitals mean that doctors, nurses and other clinical staff can access relevant patient information wherever they are, at the click of a button and on bespoke software that has been designed by and for clinicians.
Addenbrooke's said it is the biggest patient care investment it has made, and the hospital is the first in the UK to use Epic's eHospital system, which is used extensively in hospitals in the US.
eHospital will mean, for example, that instead of having to wait for paper records to be delivered to the ward, nurses are able to bring up patient notes on their handheld devices. Patients will get their medication quicker, nurses can spend more time with their patients and, hopefully, people who are treated at the trust will get home sooner.
Dr Afzal Chaudhry, chief information officer and renal consultant CUH, said: “We’re delighted that this revolutionary new system has now gone live. It is the biggest single investment the trust has ever made in the quality of patient care, and will make a real difference for everyone who comes into the trust.
“Our aim was to create modern electronic system across our two hospitals, Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie. We couldn’t have got to this point without the hard work and commitment of our dedicated staff and I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved in the preparations for the ‘switch-on.’”
Dr Chaudhry noted that this doesn’t mean the trust will be going ‘paperless’ immediately, it will take about a year to transfer medical records over.
The trust added, though, that the system has been in operation behind the scenes since the beginning of September when it started to add existing patient information.
“Two weeks ago we replicated the 70,000 outpatient appointments from our existing systems and are now updating both old and new systems in parallel,” said Dr Chaudhry.
More than 2.1 million patient records from the last five years have been uploaded to eHospital so far, and it can be accessed by 7,000 devices at the hospitals.
(Top image: c. Chris Radburn)
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