WWL NHS Trust Marches Towards Paperless Goals

The Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh (WWL) NHS Foundation Trust has adopted a new electronic patient record (EPR) platform in a bid to meet Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s paperless NHS proposal.

In January 2013, Hunt challenged all NHS Trusts to stop using paper and instead adopt electronic alternatives by 2018.

Following this announcement, WWL Trust sought an EPR that would not only help it achieve the paperless goal, but also improve the quality and standardisation of patient care across all of its sites.

24N caught up with Stephen Dobson, associate director of information management and technology at the Trust to learn more about the chosen supplier and product for the new EPR.

Technology and IT provider Trustmarque won a contract to supply WWL with its Allscripts Sunrise software after the organisation decided the firm really understood its needs and vision.

The company claims its solution can offer the Trust real-time information for clinicians while delivering care, improved operational and financial efficiency via collated and presented data to improve information exchange, clinical resource management and compliance.

“We are committed to increasing the technology capability for nurses and doctors throughout our hospitals, improving quality and freeing time to care,” claimed Dobson.

“By giving our clinicians the information they need at their fingertips, we estimate that through Allscripts we will save a great deal of time and costs and generate huge increases in productivity.

“With the data that the Allscripts Sunrise platform can deliver, we will be able to advance the patient experience and increase the rate at which we can improve healthcare,” he added.

Is 100% Paperless Really Possible?                             

While Dobson is sure of the benefits Allscripts will bring to both clinicians and patients, he told 24N he is unsure about the viability of a 100% paperless NHS.

He supports the efficiency and benefits that electronic systems can bring, but believes that “paper light” is a more realistic and achievable term as it will be very difficult to truly eliminate paper and paper will always have its place within healthcare.

Benefits Of The New EPR

Allscripts Sunrise Acute Care acts as an integrated health information solution that gives clinicians a single view of a patient at any point on their journey.

Prior to adopting this, WWL was using a disparate system of multiple patient information solutions that did not allow a patient journey to be “followed” and were not available on multiple devices.

The use of electronic data will allow the Trust to decrease time spent searching for and creating paper documents and duplication of data.

Trustmarque claims its programme can also collect and collate real-time data as patients are being treated, which can be then be used to raise an “early warning score”, ultimately reducing the length of hospital stays and saving lives.

© 24N.biz