Trust’s technology drive is boost for patients

A hospital trust, which became the first in the UK to go live with an innovative Electronic Patient Record system (EPR) called Epic, has announced plans to embrace more technology.

Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH), which was also the first to simultaneously upgrade its entire IT infrastructure, is to become the largest healthcare organisation in England to run Microsoft’s full suite of cloud-based ‘Office 365 for Business Services’, which is good news for patients and staff.

The software, which will be gradually rolled out across the organisation, will help speed up many aspects of administration, complementing Epic which was introduced in 2014.

Staff will also be able to take advantage of cloud based applications like Skype, Yammer, Microsoft Planner, and Microsoft Teams, speeding up everything from conferencing to communication and saving valuable time and money.

The work is part of the trust’s ground-breaking eHospital digital strategy which has so far included Wi-Fi in all clinical areas and the replacement of 5,500 computers with 6,750 new ones and 500 laptops. In addition, a Trust-wide “network refresh” enabled the connection of over 800 new mobile and handheld devices to Epic, allowing clinicians to record patient information in real-time at the patient’s bedside.

CUH Chief Information Officer, Dr Zafar Chaudry, said: “Microsoft Office 365 will work alongside our Epic system to enhance the administrative side of our work, helping us to work even more efficiently and effectively across the entire organisation to ultimately benefit our patients.

“Once all services are made available to staff, planned to start  later this year, CUH will become the largest healthcare organisation in England running Microsoft Office 365.”

Microsoft UK director of health and life sciences, Suzy Foster, added: “The potential for technology to enable significant benefits for both patients and NHS staff is well known. The Trust will be leading the way in enabling its staff to work flexibly, collaborate and share securely. The benefits will be far reaching.”

This work follows news that CUH was the first UK healthcare organisation to rank in the USA’s most prestigious ‘Most Wired’ survey and the Trust was awarded ‘best place to work in digital – large organisation’ in the national Digital Technology Leaders’ Awards. It was also highly commended at the 2017 Patient Safety Awards for ‘using technology to improve patient safety.’