OUH achieves technology accreditation

The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC) in Oxford has been rated highly for how it uses technology to improve patient care.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, has reached 'Stage 6' on the EMR Adoption and Maturity (EMRAM) scale, the second highest rating by the international Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

HIMSS is a non-profit organisation which works around the world promoting the use of technology to improve patient safety, care quality, cost effectiveness, and access to services.

The NOC was recently accredited following a two-day virtual inspection, showing how the Trust is joining up healthcare for patients through ground-breaking digital initiatives.

Examples include an electronic laboratory requesting and sample collection, a fully integrated blood product ordering, tracking and administration process, and the electronic validation of medications at the point of care, ensuring the right dose of the right drug at the right time to the right patient.

All of these initiatives help record patient information and improve communication between staff about patients' treatment.

Staff at the NOC were the first at the Trust to go live with the Cerner Millennium electronic patient record (EPR) platform, which helps clinicians securely access clinical information about their patients and have been leading the way in the Trust on digital systems ever since.

Paul Altmann, Chief Clinical Information Officer at the Trust, said: "We are committed to the use of technology to improve patient care, so we are delighted to be formally recognised as having achieved Stage 6 at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

"This accolade puts us among an elite group of leading hospitals and medical centres across the world that use electronic systems as a tool to support clinicians in providing high quality patient care."

OUH will build on the success at the NOC and pursue Stage 6 accreditation across other Trust sites, with the intention of aiming for Stage 7 accreditation in the future, initially at the NOC and ultimately across the Trust.

David Walliker, Chief Digital and Partnership Officer at the Trust, said: "At the heart of the Trust’s strategy both over the last five years and the next five years has been the concept of Digital by Default. What this means is to convert all our care workflows to digital ones, not just digitise the paper-based process in place prior to digital conversion.

"This recognition reflects how our clinical teams are using advanced technologies, data, and analytics on a daily basis to support and help improve the level of care that they give to our patients.

"A huge thank you to all the staff who have made the delivery of this important OUH milestone possible."

As part of the Trust's Digital by Default approach, clinicians have information easily available when they need it, paper records are removed, and it delivers greater accuracy in recording of diagnoses, co-morbidities, and complications. This is particularly important and beneficial for staff handovers at the end of shifts.

Simon Noel, Chief Nurse Informatics Officer at the Trust, added: "During the course of our journey to become fully digital we continue to strive to enhance the safety and quality of our patients' care through the use of technology, but also continue to look for ways in which the technology can be used to improve outcomes and the experience of our patients and staff."

Distie Profit, Managing Director of Cerner UK, the provider of the Trust's EPR Platform, said: "We are thrilled to be partnered with Oxford University Hospitals as they continue to realise the benefits that the digitisation of care can brings to patients, staff, and the broader health system surrounding the trust – now recognised through the HIMSS EMRAM Level 6 accreditation.

"We look forward to working in lock step with the Trust as they advance and fulfil their digital aspirations."