East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust has chosen Epic as its supplier for a new electronic patient record (EPR) system.
The Trust, which cares for nearly a million patients across east Suffolk and north Essex, has been given the green light from its Board for the new system, which will offer many benefits to patients and staff.
The EPR will streamline multiple digital systems used across Ipswich Hospital, Colchester Hospital and five community hospitals in east Suffolk and north Essex, into one single system.
Dr Damian Morris is a consultant endocrinologist at the Trust and one of the chief medical information officers for the EPR programme.
He said: “Moving to a single electronic patient record has huge benefits for patients. It means their records are kept in one digital system, so clinicians seeing them will have all the information in one place to make the right decisions about their care. It also has the potential to improve how patients have direct access to their health information.
“It will result in big benefits for staff as they won’t need to access multiple systems, and processes will be joined up across the whole Trust. It will speed up how we work behind the scenes, and we won’t need to duplicate information. We also know these systems make patient care much safer.”
Electronic patient record systems are available through many different suppliers, and after a tender process ESNEFT has chosen the supplier Epic, used by many other trusts across the country.
This is part of a £190m programme of investment over a 13-year period, which includes a contribution from the National Frontline Digitisation Fund.
Damian added: “Epic is one of the leading EPR suppliers, so we know we’re choosing the best option for our patients and staff.
“The process in rolling out such a large project will be complex and will need the engagement of all our staff, and patients too. It’s an enormous process to build and test such a comprehensive system, as well as training our staff to use the new system, but we hope to go live across the Trust in 2025.”
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