Implementing an Electronic Patient Record for RDaSH

Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) covers a wide geographical area, providing a range of services including community health services, children’s services and adult in patient and mental health services to support patients with complex medical conditions.

What was our approach?

We approached the task as a business change project from the outset, with appropriate preparation, engagement and training support throughout. We created a project team incorporating experts in technology, clinical engagement, governance and system implementation. Integration of Trust resources to create an integrated Project Team was key from the start.

Channel 3 was responsible for developing the Outline Business Case (OBC). Drawing on best practice, the OBC assessed five options, resulting in an EPR+ model being adopted which would:

• Enhance the quality of care provision
• Improve agile/mobile working
• Support more integrated care by sharing data across internal and external boundaries
• Better access to accurate activity data to support the Trust and its commissioners
• Improve productivity

Following a robust procurement process, RDaSH selected TPP’s SystmOne to provide the EPR solution. SystmOne was already being used in Community Health Services across the Trust and by a majority of GPs in the geographies serviced by the Trust.

Our SystmOne specialists worked with RDaSH and TPP to configure the EPR, creating templates that would support care plans aligned to the way the Trust works. We ensured that the Trust’s Clinical Systems Team was fully involved to ensure efficient and effective transfer of knowledge during the development and as a key part of the handover to Business As Usual (BAU). 

How did we engage?

Consultation was embedded throughout the project:

• Four Local Implementation Groups (LIGs) involving administration teams and senior nursing staff, were crucial in helping the team understand exactly what the system needed to do and how it should be implemented, which increased confidence that what was being delivered would work across the wider team.
• Design Authority – chaired by the Chief Pharmacist and involving senior clinicians, plus senior representatives from corporate functions.
• Steering Group – cross functional senior management group, jointly chaired by the Director of Health Informatics and the Chief Operating Officer as project sponsors to reinforce the objective of a Business Change project.
• Executive Programme Board – monthly reviews as a key element of the Trust Transformation Programme, chaired by the Chief Executive.

This comprehensive approach to team engagement ensured EPR implementation was a clinically-focused business change project, not an IT project. It was appropriately designed to support the Trust and ensure processes and systems were developed in response to clinical requirements and ultimately patient needs.