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.’
About Cambridge University Hospitals and eHospital
Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) is one of the largest and best known hospitals in the country, delivering high-quality patient care through Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie Hospitals. CUH is a leading national centre for specialist treatment for rare or complex conditions and a university teaching hospital with a worldwide reputation. CUH is a key partner in Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP), one of only six academic health science centres in the UK, and is at the heart of the development of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC), which brings together on one site world-class biomedical research, patient care and education.
In October 2014, CUH became the first UK Trust to implement the Epic electronic patient record system across both its hospitals, as part of its eHospital digital transformation strategy. Built by CUH staff for CUH staff the Epic system brings all clinical and administrative information about a patient in one place, recorded in real time, improving quality, reducing duplication and eliminating unnecessary delays to patient care. It has halved the time it takes to prepare discharge medications as the system ‘talks’ directly to the medication dispensing robot when a doctor orders medications in the system; every inpatient now has a barcoded wristband which links to their medical record in Epic to improve safety; real-time information is recorded in the system at each patient’s bedside on handheld and mobile devices; clinicians view notes and x-rays virtually which has free up 4,500 clinic appointment slots in orthopaedics; and allergy-related prescribing alerts in the Epic system has reduced adverse medical reactions which is saving approximately 2,500 bed days a year (£0.98 million equivalent cost saving). Epicis used in both inpatient and outpatient areas and spans all major clinical areas: A&E, wards, critical care, outpatient clinics, surgery, pharmacy, laboratory, and radiology services. Typically there is 3,200 concurrent clinical staff accessing the system at peak times. CUH is the first NHS Trust to implement a digital programme of this kind or scale, and the first to achieve Stage 6 of the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society’s (HIMSS) international Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) within a year of an electronic patient record system going live.