Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust has started using Cerner's Maternity system to create one of the safest and most efficient antenatal communities in the NHS. Dr Bernie Marsden, Consultant Paediatrician and Director of the Women's and Children's Division at the Trust, said that the system will help staff dedicate more time to mothers and new-borns and improve care. The deployment took place across the Trust, its five community sites and numerous GP Surgeries and covered a catchment area the size of Greater London.
The Electronic Patient Record (EPR) integrates multiple functionalities for Maternity departments to efficiently monitor births. It allows clinicians to observe and assess cases in real-time. It also helps identify emergencies and the need to transfer the patient from the birth centre to the hospital. The functionality that allows the midwife to take key data from mother’s record to baby’s record in a few clicks, reduces transcription errors and manual duplications. The technology supports efforts to improve the quality of care by enabling the Trust to better treat patients. Providing one unique patient record, the use of mandatory fields and drop down menus enables the clinical staff to better document cases and provides the Trust with greater insight into maternity practices and treatments.
The baseline work was taken very seriously by the Trust and early benefits have already been identified. The deployment of Maternity will deliver significant efficiency savings. Transferring the antenatal care multi-stream documentation from paper to one unique digital stream has triggered financial savings and improved compliance with processes. By diminishing data entry error and misinterpretation, the Trust has streamlined and integrated maternity care and has simplified the data entry process and released efficiencies which can be reinvested into patient care.
There was a huge amount of work that needed to be undertaken in a short period, and the feeling about what was achieved so far is particularly positive. The Trust has very strong governance and the maternity team was actively involved. Everybody has been proactive in resolving and listening to their end users. The deployment was fast and the support given to the midwives to move to a paper light environment was remarkable.
This deployment is part of the ongoing relationship between Cerner and the Royal United Hospitals Bath, NHS Foundation Trust. The Trust and Cerner have developed a strong cooperative and mutually beneficial partnership. The Cerner teams involved have established great rapport with hospital staff, at many levels.
Commenting on the recent Go Live, Christopher Ruddick, Deputy CRS Manager at Royal United Hospital Bath, said: "The whole maternity project was a true partnership between the Trust and Cerner with a very good clinical presence in the Trust throughout the project with our own midwives adopting the Cerner staff. The product was proven and the Trust had full faith in delivering a technically perfect system, most of the challenges were business change related and we continue to work with the midwifery team to ensure the change is well embedded."
About Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust provides acute treatment and care for a catchment population of around 500,000 people in Bath, and the surrounding towns and villages in North East Somerset and Western Wiltshire.
The Trust provides 565 beds and a comprehensive range of acute services including medicine and surgery, services for women and children, accident and emergency services, and diagnostic and clinical support services.
The Trust employs around 4,800 staff, some of whom also provide outpatient, diagnostic and some day case surgery services at local community hospitals in Bath & North East Somerset, Somerset and Wiltshire. This fulfils part of the Trust's aim to provide high quality care to people in their local communities.
About Cerner
Cerner's health information technologies connect people, information, and systems, at approximately 14,000 facilities worldwide. Recognised for innovation, Cerner solutions assist NHS Trusts and clinicians in making and documenting care decisions and enable organisations to manage the health of populations. The company provides clients with a wide range of in-house services, as well as an integrated clinical system to help organisations manage quality, outcomes and revenue.
Cerner's mission is to contribute to the systemic improvement of health care delivery and the health of communities. Nasdaq: CERN.