Trust named Digital Hospital of the Year 2015
02/10/2015
This article is more than eight years old.
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has won the Digital Hospital of the Year award in the ehi 2015 AWARDS. The result was announced on 1 October 2015 from a shortlist of five contestants.
The Trust has a long history of innovation and clinical excellence and has taken a big step towards establishing fully digital hospitals, making patients' medical history and care requirements available on the Trust’s electronic patient record (EPR) system.
The Trust now administers more than 20,000 drugs daily using electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA). Staff are able to administer medication just as quickly on the system as they previously would have on paper. Medicine requests are made via computer at the patients' bedside and are sent to the pharmacy to be automatically selected and labelled.
Over the past few years, the Trust has implemented the electronic system Millennium to store and manage patient information. Clinical staff can now order diagnostic tests and view results electronically. Patient admissions, discharges and transfers are also being managed in this paperless way, helping to improve accurate recording. The Trust is recognised as one of the most advanced for implementing an electronic patient record (EPR) system in the NHS. Every day across the Trust, there are 1.2 million transactions via the EPR system used by more than 8,000 staff.
Projects supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) were among the projects that helped the Trust scoop the award.
The BRC is a £100m collaboration between the Trust and the University of Oxford to drive forward research that will benefit patient care.
Projects highlighted by OUH to the judges includes the BRC supported SEND project, where patient observations are recorded on a tablet computer instead of a bedside chart and links to EPR.
The award also recognised the impact of the BRC-supported Real-Time Blood Transfusion Data and Decision Support project, pictured.
This uses barcode patient identification and handheld computers at the bedside to prompt staff through every step of the blood ordering process and verify the correct blood is transfused.
It means the entire process - also integrated with EPR - is paperless, a first in the UK and saves the Trust £500,000 a year.
Other BRC-backed projects honoured by the award include a smartphone app to manage diabetes in pregnant women.
The GDm-health programme involves women using a Bluetooth enabled blood glucose meter to send information to health professionals via a secure website with any additional comments.
The app also gives information to the patient about their blood glucose levels and allows them to communicate with health professionals about their care.
Dr Paul Altmann, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Chief Clinical Information Officer, said:
"Being awarded Digital Hospital of the Year is recognition of all the hard work that has been going on across the Trust. We implemented a number of solutions over the past few years to improve our digital strategy, including plans to take paper out of the system, improve clinical decision support and make use of the rich sources of information to further transform care.
"We have advanced plans to continue to innovate and deliver a digital platform to be used to improve clinical performance, change models of care and manage care in ways which are not possible on paper."
The awards are the UK's only dedicated healthcare IT award scheme and offer 12 categories, including digital NHS trust or health board of the year.