The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) in Harlow, Essex, and Cambio Healthcare Systems headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, specialists in providing integrated electronic patient record (EPR) systems, have worked together for 18 months aiming to transform the provision of frontline care, ensuring better outcomes for patients and increased efficiencies for the trust.
The recent roll-out at the 489-bedded hospital, including services it provides in a number of nearby hospitals and outpatient clinics, means that the Cambio COSMIC EPR system replaces the trust's obsolete McKesson 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.
The EPR provides a more joined up and accessible healthcare system to the local population of 350,000, as well as 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.
"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."
The COSMIC 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.
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," said Morley.
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."
About The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust was established in 1995 and has an annual income of around £170 million. It has 420 general and acute beds and provides a full range of general acute services including a 24/7 emergency department, an intensive care unit, a maternity unit and a level II neonatal intensive care unit. It also operates outpatient and diagnostic services from the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop's Stortford, St Margaret's Hospital in Epping and the Cheshunt Community Hospital. It employs about 2,500 staff and serves a core population of around 350,000.
About Cambio Healthcare Systems
Cambio Healthcare Systems is a market leading Electronic Patient Record (EPR) company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with offices in the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Sri-Lanka. Cambio COSMIC® is a patient-centred integrated EPR system for comprehensive and clinical healthcare solutions with a focus on patient safety. Cambio COSMIC® offers solutions within all healthcare sectors and is used by over 100,000 clinicians and healthcare professionals. COSMIC® has been deployed as a single hospital site and as a regional system across primary, secondary and community care settings.