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10 March 2023: The West Midlands trust has rapidly deployed Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EPR solution across its three hospital sites; Worcestershire Royal, Kidderminster Hospital and Alexandra Hospital. This has enabled the trust to quickly embark upon its digital transformation journey, improving patient safety and streamlining clinical workflows.

The system, which went live in January, has been successfully deployed across the trusts 56 inpatient wards. It is expected to improve patient safety, release time to care, and reduce length of stay.

Despite the recency of the go-live, benefits of the implementation are already being realised. Tracking boards are improving visibility of patients, enabling clinicians to prioritise patients based on their clinical need, and handwritten notes are now electronically inputted, eliminating the risk of illegible entries, saving time that was spent rewriting or interpreting notes.

Matthew Little, Chief Nursing Information Officer at the trust, said, “Clinicians can now see every patient’s National Early Warning Score (NEWS), so more effective decisions can be made more quickly. Clinical time, now more than ever, is precious so being able to release time to care is really benefitting patients, improving the standards of care they are receiving.”

Patient safety was a major driver for the project. Matthew said, “The system is enabling documentation to be completed more quickly, and to a higher standard. In the first weekend, more than 46,000 documents were created in Sunrise, including referrals and observations. This is providing clinicians with a much fuller picture of their patients, which will keep them safer and improve their experience of care.”

The system is also helping to release time to care, and further time savings are expected. “Doctors have told us they’re able to complete ward rounds more quickly than before, as all the information is inputted electronically. The forms are auto populated with certain information about the patient, so they can spend more time actually delivering care as opposed to filling out documents,” Matthew said.

The trust opted for a phased approach when deploying Sunrise EPR. Initially piloting to three wards, the trust introduced it to all adult inpatient wards over 4 weeks.  “It was important for us to take a phased approach to the go-live, said Stuart Cooper, EPR Programme Director at the trust. “It enabled us to learn along the way to make the transition as smooth as possible, as for many staff this is their first time working digitally. As a result, we have very quickly been able to improve the baseline of our digital maturity, with minimal disruption to patient care.”

The deployment was led by a multidisciplinary EPR team, made up of technical, clinical, and operational staff, to ensure the solution was reflective of the trust’s specific needs.

Stuart said, “The project has been truly collaborative. We have worked closely with Altera, developing their blueprint and localising it to meet our requirements. Having this flexibility has meant we have been able to build a solution that has started benefitting patients right from go live.”

Next, the trust will be focusing on enhancing the functionality of the system, activating Sunrise EPR in the emergency and outpatient departments, as well as deploying order communications, referrals, and surgery. The trust will also be going live with electronic prescribing and medicines administration as part of the next phase.

Dr Anna Bayes, International Medical Director, Altera Digital Health, said, “The team at Worcestershire have demonstrated incredible commitment to this project, and as a result it has been able to quickly improve its digital maturity. Sunrise users are already benefitting from enhanced multidisciplinary communication, visibility of patient observations and serial assessments as well as gaps in care. Time saved looking for paper records is also a huge advantage for busy ward staff.  This is just the initial stage in Worcestershire’s digitisation and we look forward to building on this momentum for even further benefits to be harnessed.”

ENDS

Media Contact
Charlotte Tovey, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
charlotte@silver-buck.com
 07852462266

About Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust provides hospital-based services from three main sites – the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, Kidderminster Hospital and Treatment Centre, and Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester – as well as some community-based services.  The trust provide a wide range of services to a population of 592,158 people in Worcestershire as well as caring for patients from surrounding counties and further afield. In 2021/22, the trust provided care to more than 250,000 different patients. Worcester employs over 6,000 people and around 800 local people volunteer helping to deliver care. The trust catchment population extends beyond Worcestershire itself, as patients are also attracted from neighbouring areas including South Birmingham, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and South Staffordshire. This results in a catchment population which varies between 420,000 and 800,000 depending on the service.

About Altera Digital Health

Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT innovator. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to solutions provides a fast, flexible and clinically driven roadmap towards digital maturity across integrated care systems.

With more than 2,700 hospitals in more than 15 countries, our solutions support healthcare providers, governments and military institutions around the world. By keeping the human user at the centre of our design methodology, we are supporting caregivers and helping patients meet and exceed their wellness goals. Together, with our clients, we’re driving a new era of healthcare. To learn more, visit uk.alterahealth.com.

February 2023 – Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW) has successfully deployed Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise™ electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) functionality trust-wide, which includes two hospitals and two emergency departments, accelerating the trust’s digital maturity.

MTW first went live with Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EPR 18 months ago, in September 2021, laying the foundation of the trust’s 10-year digital transformation strategy. It has improved operational efficiency and patient outcomes, and played an important role in helping the trust rank seventh out of 120 trusts nationally for its services to patients.

ePMA, the latest ambitious phase of transformation, is now live across the trust, embedded within the EPR. This will improve patient safety by reducing medication errors and improve experiences for clinicians as the EPR is able to enhance their workflows and release time for patient care.

The system will enable accurate, timely prescribing processes, operating as an assistive tool for clinicians. “The system is going to completely transform ways of working for our pharmacists, many of whom are working digitally for the first time,” said Mildred Johnson, Chief Pharmacist and Chair of EPMA Project Board, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

The system will increase prescriber awareness when duplicate high-risk medicines are prescribed, starting with anti-coagulants, reducing medication errors and giving pharmacists extra assurance. “We expect this to be especially valuable in busy periods, when medication errors can be more likely,” explained Mildred. “The system has been set up for an alert to be generated when there is a high-level drug interaction during the prescribing process.”

The roll out was carefully conducted over just two weekends building on learnings from previous go-lives, as well as multiple trial runs before launch. Programme Director for EPR and Digital Transformation at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Foundation Trust, Jane Saunders said, “The success of the project was down to the thorough training, preparation and support put in place before and throughout the go-lives. The trial runs we conducted especially helped us to make better operational decisions and streamline the launch, causing minimal disruption to patient care.”

Eighty percent of nurses were trained before go-live, with training methods including videos, webinars, written guides and face-to-face sessions, so staff could select the best approach for them. This meant that little support was required by nursing staff from the pharmacy ambassadors and transcribing team who were superusers.

Mildred said, “We’re seeing a major benefit to our on-call doctors and pharmacists, who are now able to prescribe remotely as they can access the system from anywhere. It means our clinical staff on wards are spending less time on the phone to get medication prescribed and can spend more time with patients.”

Reflecting on the go-live, Jane said, “The fact we have been able to achieve such rapid and impactful transformation is testament to the collaboration between our team and Altera Digital Health.

“Our mission is to offer outstanding care and this latest go-live is helping us to achieve that. Our digital journey is underpinned by our EPR, and this is a major step.”

Dr Anna Bayes, International Medical Director, Altera Digital Health, said, “The dedication from the team at MTW underpinned by robust clinical engagement has enabled the trust to take a significant step in its digital transformation whilst enhancing patient safety.”

Next, MTW will work towards piloting Electronic Discharge Notification (EDN) across four wards in the next month as well as rolling out ePMA in maternity later this year, with Paediatrics to follow in 2024.

The trust will also deploy the Sunrise™ Surgical Care solution alongside the Provation® iPro anaesthetic record later this year.

ENDS

Media Contact

Charlotte Tovey, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
charlotte@silver-buck.com
07852462266

About Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Foundation Trust

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is a large acute hospital Trust in the south east of England. Its core catchment areas are Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells and their surrounding boroughs, and it operates from two main clinical sites: Maidstone Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury. The latter is a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) hospital and provides wholly single bedded en-suite accommodation for in-patients.

The Trust employs over 6,700 full and part-time staff. It provides a full range of general hospital services and some areas of specialist complex care to around 500,000 people living in Kent and East Sussex, as well as hosting one of the largest oncology centres in the UK (serving 1.9 million patients).

About Altera Digital Health

Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT innovator. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to solutions provides a fast, flexible and clinically driven roadmap towards digital maturity across integrated care systems.

With more than 2,700 hospitals in more than 15 countries, our solutions support healthcare providers, governments and military institutions around the world. By keeping the human user at the centre of our design methodology, we are supporting caregivers and helping patients meet and exceed their wellness goals. Together, with our clients, we’re driving a new era of healthcare. To learn more, visit uk.alterahealth.com.

7 November 2022: Medway NHS Foundation Trust has successfully deployed the Sunrise™ electronic patient record (EPR) system in its Emergency Department as well as its electronic prescribing and medicines administration (EPMA) functionality across the hospital in phase two of its EPR delivery strategy.

The rapid go-live of Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EPR within Medway NHS Foundation Trust’s Emergency Department (ED) and the introduction of EPMA across ED and inpatient wards marks the successful completion of the second phase of the trust’s EPR strategy. The trust successfully completed both go-lives within four days of each other – on 24 September and 28 September 2022, respectively. This follows the earlier implementation of Sunrise across the trust’s 24 adult inpatient wards, achieved in a record-breaking five months.

This latest phase of the wider EPR implementation project will drive better patient care with significant improvement to patient flow throughout the hospital, including faster admission to inpatient wards, greater oversight of patient data and quicker, more efficient discharge.

As with the phase-one deployment, Medway prioritised the formation of a multidisciplinary team, with clinical, operational and IT staff collaborating to deliver the project—this time also with the addition of pharmaceutical leads to support the EPMA delivery.

Michael Beckett, Director of IT at Medway NHS FT said, “We understand the importance of having clinical input into digital transformation projects and have taken steps to ensure that we have the right mix of expertise. Having a dedicated pharmacist on this project has been critical in terms of the development of the medication catalogue and order sets. This will ensure that our EPR provides improved patient safety, better auditing, and financial benefits in terms of stock control or prescribing management.”

During the planning phases, the project team looked to Altera Digital Health and other trusts’ for best practice approaches, as well as applying lessons learnt from the phase-one project at Medway.

Suzanne O’Neil, EPR Director at Medway NHS FT, said, “ED is incredibly busy and so we had to ensure that the go-live didn’t have a negative impact. In order to mitigate this risk, we took steps such as bringing in extra staff and ensuring that digital champions were stationed within the department to provide support. We also provided a quiet room where the digital champions could give additional training, away from the busy department.”

The trust benefitted from the success of the earlier implementation of Sunrise across the hospital’s inpatient wards, with clinical staff asking when the system would be introduced in ED. “There was a real desire to be able to use Sunrise in ED,” explained Suzanne. “Doctors and nurses didn’t want to start a patient’s notes on paper and then move to digital; it is much more beneficial to have the whole patient pathway documented digitally. This really helped to accelerate the implementation of Sunrise within ED as the staff buy-in was there from the start.”

For the EPMA go-live, the trust employed a transcribing team that included pharmacists from neighbouring trusts. Suzanne said, “Transcribing teams consisted of junior doctors, pharmacists and technicians. We didn’t have enough pharmacists to cover this extra work, so we turned to our neighbouring trusts for support.”

The team systematically transcribed the notes for each inpatient into the EPMA. Once a ward was complete, it was given a date and timestamp that was signed off by the pharmacist and the junior doctor.

Suzanne said, “We started with surgical and frailty wards because, historically, we don’t change the medication that often. This gave our transcribing teams the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the system before doing the wards with more complex medicine prescriptions.”

Just four days after rolling out EPMA functionality across the hospital, the trust activated the EPR in its ED. It took several steps to ensure the ED launch went smoothly, including organising a multi-agency discharge event that brought together region-wide partners to undertake intensive discharge activity to create capacity, and therefore mitigate any impact on ambulance handovers.

The trust is already seeing the benefits of the recent go-lives and is planning to undertake formal evaluation studies in order to fully understand the benefits to patients and staff.

Michael said, “One of our surgeons has reported the benefits of being able to clearly read what is written on drug charts and the benefits of using a catalogue that clearly states dosage. Discharge notices are also automatically populated, so we know that the right information is sent to GPs and patients and our clinical colleagues are not having to duplicate inputting this information. We also know that we now meet the requirements of the Professional Record Standards Body, which was a strategic objective for the trust.”

Paula Ridd, General Manager UK & Ireland at Altera Digital Health, said, “Once again, Medway has demonstrated remarkable levels of planning and determination to achieve two significant go-lives within days of each other, proving that digital transformation can be achieved in a matter of months, not years. We were delighted to support the talented team throughout this project and, with the help of our other NHS clients, provide best practice guidance and advice based on recent experience.”

About Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Medway NHS Foundation Trust is a single site hospital in Gillingham, Kent. It employs 4,400 staff members and a population of 424,000 people across Medway and Swale. Each year, there are more than 125,000 Emergency Department attendances, 88,000 admissions and more than 278,000 outpatient appointments.

About Altera Digital Health
Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT innovator. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to solutions provides a fast, flexible and clinically driven roadmap towards digital maturity across integrated care systems. With more than 2,700 hospitals in more than 15 countries, our solutions support healthcare providers, governments and military institutions around the world. By keeping the human user at the centre of our design methodology, we are supporting caregivers and helping patients meet and exceed their wellness goals. Together, with our clients, we’re driving a new era of healthcare. To learn more, visit uk.alterahealth.com.

Copyright 2022 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

January 2022: Medway NHS Foundation Trust has successfully deployed phase one of its electronic patient record (EPR) programme with Allscripts, going live across all 24 adult inpatient wards. Collaboration between clinical, operational and IT teams enabled the trust to go live in record time.

Medway is now the first healthcare organisation in the world to be using the latest version (version 21.1) of the Allscripts Sunrise EPR. The project began in July and the trust officially went live on 16^th November, meaning the entire process took less than five months. The deployment of phase one was timed to avoid the peak of intense pressures that winter brings on health services.

The collaborative approach from clinical, operational and IT teams, all of whom were aligned to EPR delivery as a strategic objective, meant the trust was still able to roll out the new system to schedule. Clinicians are already noticing major benefits, such as improved communication and time released to care.

In the three weeks after go-live, more than 115,000 clinical documents were created in the system that is now being used by more than 1,000 clinical, nursing, and administrative staff.

Suzanne O’Neil, EPR Director, Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: “EPR has been a strategic priority for the trust throughout the pandemic, and clinical buy-in was imperative to keep the wheels turning. Being able to build an EPR to fit their bespoke needs meant there was a passion to deliver it right and on time. I can’t imagine it going much better than it did.”

Although the solution has only been live for a few weeks, clinical benefits are already being realised, for example being able to access patient notes remotely. Previously, an on-call consultant would need to phone the hospital and take someone away from their clinical work to read through patient notes and relay observations. Now, clinicians can access them from anywhere through the Sunrise portal. This is saving 20-30 minutes of time per patient that would otherwise have been spent on the phone talking through paper notes.

The trust chose to take a phased approach to the roll out, introducing less functionality across more areas. Suzanne said: “We only implemented our PAS five years ago, so we needed to make sure there was appetite for digital and motivation to see the project through. Staff were encouraged by the shorter timeline to delivery, which enabled us to all align to the goal of deploying as quickly as we could.”

As well as clinical benefits, patient experience has also improved. Dr Nabeel Qureshi, Consultant Surgeon and Clinical Lead for EPR, Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The EPR is transforming our workflows, and is already having a positive impact on patient safety. Having electronic clinical documents all but eradicates human error. Notes are easy to read and can be completed at the bedside on a computer, meaning we spend more time caring for our patients and less time checking handwriting. We also have access to the GP record, so there’s less repetition for the patient or reliance on them remembering their care history, meaning the care journey is more joined up.”

The EPR is also providing benefits on a strategic scale by supporting the trust with data and evidence to deliver on the recommendations from their recent CQC inspection.

Suzanne said: “We now have access to a rich data set that is informing best practice across the wards, and gives us evidence to prove we’re delivering on the CQC’s expectations. All that information is in a single tab in Sunrise and can be transferred into the Shared Care Record for Kent and Medway. The position we’re in to use this data in an ICS setting is very promising.”

The trust was able to deploy at speed, without disrupting workflows. “The project was clinically driven from start to finish”, said Suzanne. “It was so encouraging to see so many clinicians and operational colleagues engaged with the training process leading up to go live. We took a modular approach, so staff only completed training that was necessary for their specific workflows. This streamlined the process and played a huge part in sticking to our timeline for roll out, as did having such a supportive partner in the Allscripts team throughout the project.”

With EPR being a central component to Medway’s digital and operational strategies, next it plans to expand the functionality of Sunrise to include ePMA in 2022. The trust is also working with other neighbouring acute trusts to develop the region’s shared care record.

Paula Ridd, General Manager UK and Ireland, Allscripts, said: “Seeing what Medway has achieved in such a short space of time is nothing short of remarkable. The resilience, determination and innovative nature of the team has enabled them to achieve a rapid deployment in less than five months. With other acute trusts in Kent now live with Allscripts’ Sunrise EPR, there’s increased  possibilities for truly joined up care at an ICS level.”

ENDS

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) is a leader in healthcare information technology solutions that advance
clinical, financial and operational results. Our innovative solutions connect people, places and data across an Open, Connected Community of HealthTM. Connectivity empowers caregivers to make better decisions and deliver better care for healthier populations. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

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© 2021 Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Allscripts, the Allscripts logo, and other Allscripts marks are trademarks of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All other products are trademarks of their respective holders, all rights reserved. Reference to these products is not intended to imply affiliation with or sponsorship of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates.

Paula Ridd has taken on a new role at Allscripts as the General Manager for UK and Ireland.

14 December, 2021: Delivery and implementation have always been central to Paula’s career. She has spent more than 20 years in these areas, first at CSC (now Dedalus) and more recently at Allscripts. Having been with Allscripts for six years as Director of Professional Services, on 1 December, Paula took on a new role as General Manager for UK and Ireland, consolidating Allscripts commitment to the UK market. In her new role, she will report into Richard Strong, Managing Director EMEA.

During her tenure at Allscripts, Paula has been key in helping the company grow in the UK, as Allscripts has expanded the number of NHS clients and positioned the company as a trusted EPR supplier. Also in this time, she has been instrumental in developing the Allscripts EPR Blueprint. This has enabled less digitally mature trusts to learn from more advanced organisations as they embark upon their digital transformation journeys. This includes Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which deployed its Allscripts Sunrise™ EPR in less than six months, as well as Medway NHS Foundation Trust which was able to deploy in less than five months.

In her new role, Paula will oversee business development in the UK and Ireland, and be accountable for the implementation of all projects in the region. As one of her first priorities, she intends to set out an inclusive, transparent and client-led business strategy for the next five years, calling on her experience of implementing a wide range of projects. Paula is also a keen advocate for Allscripts inclusive and empowering culture, as the international lead for Allscripts Women’s Engagement (AWE) programme.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working for Allscripts for some time now, and I’m excited for a fresh challenge,” says Paula. “I am passionate about healthcare delivery and making a difference to people working in our healthcare system. Being a part of a company that prioritises clinically driven digital maturity means I get to work on delivering transformational projects every day. In my new role I will partner with our NHS clients to tackle national challenges such as the backlog, and will work to inspire the kind of leadership needed to build a robust health and care system.”

Paula is available for interviews to talk about the following:

• The importance of a client-led business strategy for suppliers
• Why digital transformation/maturity should be clinically driven
• Getting more women into tech leadership roles
• Fighting imposter syndrome and navigating complex environments

ENDS

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) is a leader in healthcare information technology solutions that advance
clinical, financial and operational results. Our innovative solutions connect people, places and data across an Open, Connected Community of HealthTM. Connectivity empowers caregivers to make better decisions and deliver better care for healthier populations. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

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© 2021 Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Allscripts, the Allscripts logo, and other Allscripts marks are trademarks of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All other products are trademarks of their respective holders, all rights reserved. Reference to these products is not intended to imply affiliation with or sponsorship of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates.

Electronic acute medical list dramatically reduces waiting times for clinical review and is contributing to a projected operational saving of more than £3 million

1 August, 2021: Clinicians at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust have dramatically reduced patient waiting times, decreased hospital length of stay and improved patient safety after developing an electronic acute medical list solution to manage patient referrals.

The configuration was initially set-up to track referrals and admissions to the Acute Medicine Unit (AMU) Team from multiple sources. Operationally, the solution is contributing towards a projected annual saving in excess of £3 million. The solution will now also be deployed to other teams trust-wide which manage acute admissions.

Dr Nithin Narayan, a consultant in AMU, who recognised the opportunity to configure the solution within the trust’s existing Allscripts Sunrise Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system, said: “Our patients are admitted through multiple referral routes and can be in any number of locations across the hospital with varying degrees of serious illness. Each admission has its own process relying on unintegrated, complex systems and non-automated tracking boards. Consultants were previously unsure about who to see as they moved between three or four clinical areas.

“During the Covid-19 waves, this was exacerbated, and we often spent valuable minutes trying to track down Covid patients who were admitted directly to dedicated Covid wards bypassing the AMU. We were all walking around with little pieces of paper to try and keep on top of our patient lists. I’ve lost track of how many times people asked me where a patient was, or when a patient would be seen. It was incredibly inefficient, and issues were arising.”

Dr. Narayan said the flexibility of the trust’s Allscripts EPR enabled them to replace numerous non-integrated systems such as pagers, verbal referrals, handwritten referral lists and manually updated tracking boards with a single, unified electronic list detailing all patient information including those that have outstanding clinical assessments, as well as the live location of patients as they move through hospital.

Since implementation, audits have shown that the average waiting time for patients to be reviewed by a medical consultant has decreased by 34%. In addition, 74% of medical referrals are now seen within target compared to 49% previously. The clinical improvements were especially evident over the weekends, with significant reductions in the average waiting time for review by a junior doctor and a medical consultant.

The solution has also rectified ongoing issues of delayed and/or missed clinical reviews when patients were transferred to another clinical area. On average, the waiting for a review for this cohort of patients has reduced by 74% as their presence, location and status of ‘not yet reviewed’ is visible to all.

Dr. Huw Skiplorne, a junior doctor working in the Clinical Assessment Unit added: “The list not only shows you where a patient is, but provides oversight of teams and who is doing what – it actually doubles up as a workflow tool and can be used for workforce planning.”

The trust has seen a positive impact on measurable clinical outcomes across the hospital. It has provided bed managers and discharge teams with more information and resulted in a 19% reduction in hospital length of stay and a 5% reduction in 30 day re-admissions. Annualised for 12,000 admissions, this is a reduction of 15,600 total occupied bed days and a potential financial saving of £3.12 million.

Outside of the measurable benefits of the list, clinical teams have also recognised the impact on their personal workplace experience.

Dr. Narayan adds: “The data speaks for itself, but the qualitative benefits need to be emphasised too. We can now manage our workload without constant interruptions. We no longer need to regularly repeat clinical information and our pagers don’t go off as often. This means our workflows are less interrupted and clinicians spend less time worrying about delays in patient care.”

The list is now being deployed trust-wide across all speciality units admitting acute referrals and has been nominated by the trust for several awards with the hope that the implementation will motivate other NHS trusts to create similar systems, leading to a system- wide culture change and improvement in patient safety and care.

Dr. Anna Bayes, Medical Director for Allscripts, added: “Bolton has really shown how sometimes the simplest applications of configuration make the biggest difference. Sunrise EPR gives clinicians the flexibility to create tools to optimise their workflows. Sharing these tools across teams will amplify the benefits. They have evidence that the time lag for crucial decision making has been reduced significantly – improving outcomes and freeing up beds faster, enhancing patient flow and speed to diagnosis for patients.”

ENDS

About Bolton NHS Foundation Trust

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust provides patient care in the community, at health centres and clinics as well as district nursing and intermediate care services in the North West Sector of Greater Manchester. They provide services at the Royal Bolton Hospital, which is a major hub within Greater Manchester for women’s and children’s services and is the second busiest ambulance-receiving site in Greater Manchester, as well as a wide range of community services from locations across the city.

Last year, the trust was shortlisted in the HSJ Awards in 2020 for Acute Sector Innovation of the Year, and the Homeless Outreach Nursing Team was also highly commended for Best Partnership Solution Improving Patient Safety.

In February 2020, it was announced that the plans to form an Integrated Care Alliance were approved. Work is now underway on the development of an Integrated Care Partnership, to transform the way that care is delivered in Bolton.

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) is a leader in healthcare information technology solutions that advance
clinical, financial and operational results. Our innovative solutions connect people, places and data across an Open, Connected Community of HealthTM. Connectivity empowers caregivers to make better decisions and deliver better care for healthier populations. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

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© 2021 Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Allscripts, the Allscripts logo, and other Allscripts marks are trademarks of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All other products are trademarks of their respective holders, all rights reserved. Reference to these products is not intended to imply affiliation with or sponsorship of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates.

For more information contact:

Investors:
Stephen Shulstein
312-386-6735
Stephen.Shulstein@allscripts.com

Media:
Concetta Rasiarmos 312-447-2466
concetta.rasiarmos@allscripts.com

June 2021 – Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GHT) will receive £6m funding as part of the second wave of the Digital Aspirant programme.

The funding will support its five-year digital strategy, which aims to take the trust from a HIMSS rating of around 0.02 to level 6 in five years, as well as supporting its involvement in the region’s shared care record.

The trust’s bid was underpinned by the successful implementation of its Allscripts Sunrise Electronic Patient Record (EPR), which was delivered using a first-of-kind EPR blueprint – a flexible delivery framework developed with NHS partners to deploy the system quickly as a ‘clinical wrap’ eliminating the need to do a full ‘rip and replace’ of all existing solutions, many of which are fit for purpose. The approach brings operational and clinical benefits and helps to switch off expensive clinical legacy systems sooner. This ensured greater value for money and a system already developed, used, and trusted by clinicians at multiple digitally advanced NHS trusts.

Mark Hutchinson, Executive Chief Digital & Information Officer at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said that the blueprint helped implement the system in just five months and has led to rapid and increased benefits realisation and staff engagement, which has demonstrated the art of the possible.

“Our digital strategy sets out the journey which began with us choosing Allscripts as our EPR partner. The pace at which we’ve been able to deploy and prove the benefits has massively improved confidence levels in digital across the Trust. It will have undoubtedly played a big part in NHSX’s decision to award us a place on the Digital Aspirant programme,” said Hutchinson.

“On top of investment in infrastructure required to run an EPR, we’ve recruited people with the expertise to help us deliver significant change at pace. We’re now able to embrace the opportunities that digital transformation presents and see our digital journey as a key enabler to us becoming a CQC Outstanding trust and a future Digital Exemplar. Being part of the Digital Aspirant programme is not only a testament to our commitment, but it will accelerate our journey and help us to continue to deliver at pace.”

Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, the trust has been able to realise benefits earlier than planned, with the EPR returning up to £10 of savings for every £1 invested and increasing patient care time by 19%.

Paul Downie, Chief Clinical Information Officer at the trust said: “Our two-year plan to deliver clinical functionality that would improve care for the majority of our patients included nursing documentation, electronic observations and order communications. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the first part of the project has delivered more than we could have imagined and has only increased demand for further digital improvements.”
In addition, the trust’s initial digital advancements have improved its reputation within the ICS and underpinned its involvement in delivering shared care records.

“Both GHT and the wider ICS aspire to deliver long-term strategies that are reliant on digital technology. The model for urgent and elective care requires high quality clinical, capacity and demand information to flow across care settings, sites and providers in as near to real- time as possible. We know we can deliver and help GHT and the ICS to maximise limited resources.”

It will use the Digital Aspirant funding to support its next phase of digital transformation which includes ePrescribing; becoming paper-lite across all outpatients; utilising ED and maternity clinical functionality; implementing RFID; creating digital intelligence to improve quality, outcome and research; and ensuring systems are interoperable to enable staff to access shared health and care records.

Richard Strong, Vice President and Managing Director of Allscripts EMEA, said: “Two out of the seven second-wave trusts that received full Digital Aspirant funding are using Allscripts’ Sunrise EPR to demonstrate significant progress and forward momentum in their transformation programmes. We look forward to continuing to support them on their journey as they utilise new technology that integrates, compliments and extends their existing systems.”

ENDS

About Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GHT)

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest hospital trusts in the country and provides high quality acute, elective and specialist health care for a population of more than 640,000 people. Our population is expected to rise to 698,600 by 2035, of which 27.9% will be over 65 and of this group, 46.8% will be living with one or more limiting long-term conditions. Our hospitals provide high quality services; some specialist departments are concentrated at either Cheltenham General Hospital or Gloucestershire Royal Hospital so that we can make the best use of our expertise and specialist equipment.

The trust operates within the Gloucestershire health and social care system alongside partner organisations including Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (GCCG), Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (created during 2019 from the former Gloucestershire Care
Services NHS Trust and 2Gether NHS Foundation Trust), South West Ambulance Trust (SWAST), approximately 80 GP surgeries, and Gloucestershire County Council. Collectively these partner organisations form the One Gloucestershire Integrated Care System (ICS).

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) is a leader in healthcare information technology solutions that advance
clinical, financial and operational results. Our innovative solutions connect people, places and data across an Open, Connected Community of HealthTM. Connectivity empowers caregivers to make better decisions and deliver better care for healthier populations. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

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© 2021 Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Allscripts, the Allscripts logo, and other Allscripts marks are trademarks of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All other products are trademarks of their respective holders, all rights reserved. Reference to these products is not intended to imply affiliation with or sponsorship of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates.

For more information contact:

Investors:
Stephen Shulstein
312-386-6735
Stephen.Shulstein@allscripts.com

Media:
Concetta Rasiarmos 312-447-2466
concetta.rasiarmos@allscripts.com

Trust becomes third in Kent to choose the Allscripts electronic patient record (EPR), and aims for first go-live in six-months to support clinicians and patient safety

DATELINE – February 2021 – Medway NHS Foundation Trust is looking to make rapid improvements in its digital maturity with the Allscripts Sunrise electronic patient record.

The Kent trust signed a contract with Allscripts in December 2020 and is planning to go-live with the first phase of core functionality six months from the start of the project. The launch of clinical documents with in-context links to other IT systems in use at the trust will give clinicians easier access to a single view of patient information.

It will also lay the foundations for three further phases of a full EPR roll-out, including e- prescribing and medicines administration, for which the trust has received national funding.

Medway will be able to move quickly because it will be leveraging the Allscripts UK Blueprint that has been designed and tested with organisations such as Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to deliver rapid success to trusts with low digital maturity.

Michael Beckett, interim director of IT at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our digital maturity is not where it should be, and that is something that the board and our clinicians want to address. We are running many legacy systems and we want to consolidate them to support our clinicians and build a platform for the future.”

“By working with Allscripts, we will also be working with the solution that is used by our neighbours at East Kent University Hospitals and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells. That will create tremendous opportunities for interoperability across our region.”

“The trust is very excited about this development and what it will mean, not just for the next few months, but for the future.”

Medway is a long-standing Allscripts client that went live with the company’s patient administration system in 2015. However, it has been running as many as 80 clinical systems and 70 additional systems alongside the PAS and is now looking to consolidate them into a single EPR.

Retaining the PAS and using the Allscripts ‘clinical wrap’ approach to add clinical functionality will enable the trust to do this more quickly and at a significantly lower cost than discarding the system.

But to double-check it was making the right choice, the trust conducted market reviews and held demonstration workshops with its clinicians before going with Sunrise, which Beckett said was a popular choice among doctors who have done clinical rotations through King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which also uses the EPR.

The UK Blueprint and Allscripts’ integration capabilities were further, important factors in the choice. Beckett said: “Knowing that we can go-live and start to make a difference quickly is important.

“Our strategy and our business case are focused on delivering time to care back to clinicians and on improving safety for patients. Seeing what the other trusts that we have spoken to have been able to achieve has given us the confidence that we will be able to deliver that.”

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the go-live will be planned and delivered remotely. Work will start in April 2021, when the worst of the second wave should be over. Allscripts and the trust will keep the situation under review, and flex timescales as necessary to maintain clinical engagement.

James Devine, Medway NHS Foundation Trust’s Chief Executive said, “this project will have a profound impact on the trust and healthcare across Kent.”

“This is about giving our clinicians the digital tools they need to do the job, every day,” he said. “It is also about creating a platform for increasingly joined-up systems across the region, so that we can benefit from sharing information and moving towards a population health and integrated care approach.”

“I am confident that we have the right strategy, the right solution and the right proven supplier to deliver for our clinicians and for our patients.”

Richard Strong, Vice President and Managing Director, EMEA, Allscripts, said: “We are pleased to see another NHS trust looking beyond the pandemic and choosing the Sunrise electronic patient record to support clinicians and patients in the future.

“We look forward to working with Medway NHS Foundation Trust and its neighbouring organisations, East Kent University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust on a series of go-lives over the next few months. Together, these will have a significant positive impact on digital maturity across the region.”

ENDS

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) is a leader in healthcare information technology solutions that advance
clinical, financial and operational results. Our innovative solutions connect people, places and data across an Open, Connected Community of HealthTM. Connectivity empowers caregivers to make better decisions and deliver better care for healthier populations. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

###

© 2021 Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Allscripts, the Allscripts logo, and other Allscripts marks are trademarks of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All other products are trademarks of their respective holders, all rights reserved. Reference to these products is not intended to imply affiliation with or sponsorship of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates.

For more information contact:

Investors:
Stephen Shulstein
312-386-6735
Stephen.Shulstein@allscripts.com

Media:
Concetta Rasiarmos 312-447-2466
concetta.rasiarmos@allscripts.com

2021 – Kent trust has elevated its ambitions for digital maturity, deploying Allscripts’ Sunrise EPR to encourage joined up care. The move makes Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells the second of four acute trusts in the region to implement Allscripts Sunrise EPR.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has deployed Sunrise EPR across the emergency departments at both its hospitals, as well as paediatric inpatient services, gastroenterology and neurology outpatients, and ordering tests and making referrals trust wide. Despite only being a few weeks in, the trust is already experiencing impressive clinical benefits. “The new system has provided functionality that enables our teams to seamlessly share patient data, supporting the further development of a shared care record for Kent”, commented Jane Saunders, EPR Director at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

The trust selected Allscripts as its EPR provider in 2019 and the recent go-live marks a big step forward for the trust’s digital maturity, helping to fulfil its ‘digital first, paper second’ strategy. The early clinical benefits for the trust have been notable, improving and digitising previously manual, time-consuming processes. Jane added that “just two weeks in, 1,200 daily users were able to deliver 30,000 tests and 170,000 results into the system. Labelling, that had previously been completed manually, has now been automated, saving hospital staff eight hours per day processing pathology forms. As a result, our clinicians have been able to spend more time with patients and have better visibility of each patient’s care pathway as all their information is recorded and stored within the EPR.”

Such early success, Jane adds, was made possible by how usable Sunrise is, and the structured training provided to get clinicians used to the new technology. “We took a blended approach, with in person and online training, even being able to conduct one-to-ones with those who were more nervous about using the technology. As a result, we were able to get 78% of staff fully trained ahead of deployment, meaning clinicians were able to make the most out of all their processes being integrated from day one.”

The flexibility and adaptability of Sunrise has also been recognised by staff across the trust. Peter Maskell, Medical Director, said: “It’s really intuitive. Clinicians are coming to me and saying, ‘oh, this is so easy’ and they have begun thinking about how it could be configured for their department’s specific needs. Most importantly, we’re able to review and take stock of what’s working well and how we can adapt to make the most of its flexibility.”

“In the Emergency Department, workflows are being transformed. Previously, clinicians would be walking around to manually track patients, or to review notes from junior doctors,” Sue Forsey, Director of IT, adds. “Now, all processes are stored in Sunrise, so notescan be reviewed or exchanged without having to take the trip down to ED. The tab functionality within Sunrise also allows our clinical teams to use the EPR to easily access other applications acting as a portal so they have the right information, in the right place, when they need it. Our patients will experience less repetition too as all clinicians in their care pathway will have greater visibility of their needs.”

Sue also relayed the positivity from the trust’s phlebotomists. “I think they’re the happiest people in the hospital. Their entire workflow is stored in a single, focused place, so they have all the information in front of them when they need it.”
The trust has more plans, including regional ambitions, that the go-live has the potential to unlock.

Jane says: “The next step for the trust is to deploy Sunrise across all inpatient adult wards for core clinical documents before rolling out ePMA within 2021/22. We’re keen to see what else we can digitise, so we can support the continued integration of the Kent and Medway Shared Care Record.

“We now have a ‘single tab’ to access shared data directly from Sunrise, which will enable us to work with neighbouring trusts in a more seamless way. The trust provides cancer services for the whole region, which is one of the most populous In tegrated Care Systems in England, so the increased capabilities for data sharing provide a promising foundation for more joined up, and ultimately better care, for patients.”

As a partner, Allscripts were “as much a part of our team as we are a part of theirs” concluded Sue. They’ve helped us to take steps towards digital maturity and think differently about our data strategies for the future.”

ENDS

About Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is a large acute hospital Trust in the south east of England. The Trust was legally established on 14 February 2000 and provides a full range of general hospital services, and some areas of specialist complex care to around 560,000 people living in the south of West Kent and the north of East Sussex.

The Trust’s core catchment areas are Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells and their surrounding boroughs, and it operates from two main clinical sites: Maidstone Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury. The latter is a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) hospital and provides wholly single bedded en-suite accommodation for in-patients.

The Trust employs a team of over 5000 full and part-time staff. In addition, the Trust provides specialist cancer services to around 1.8 million people across Kent, Hastings and Rother, via the Kent Oncology Centre, which is sited at Maidstone Hospital, and at Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury. The Trust also provides outpatient clinics across a wide range of locations in Kent and East Sussex.

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) is a leader in healthcare information technology solutions that advance
clinical, financial and operational results. Our innovative solutions connect people, places and data across an Open, Connected Community of HealthTM. Connectivity empowers caregivers to make better decisions and deliver better care for healthier populations. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

###

© 2021 Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Allscripts, the Allscripts logo, and other Allscripts marks are trademarks of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates. All other products are trademarks of their respective holders, all rights reserved. Reference to these products is not intended to imply affiliation with or sponsorship of Allscripts Healthcare, LLC and/or its affiliates.

For more information contact:

Investors:
Stephen Shulstein
312-386-6735
Stephen.Shulstein@allscripts.com

Media:
Concetta Rasiarmos 312-447-2466
concetta.rasiarmos@allscripts.com