Digitising the frontline in the East of England

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s (CUH) digital journey

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) successfully moved away from using paper patient records in 2014 and introduced fully digital ways of documenting patient care and accessing clinical information.

Today over 99 per cent of all clinical activity across Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie hospitals is recorded within the Trust’s electronic patient record system by clinicians, in real-time, using integrated computers, handheld and mobile devices.

Since implementing its EPR, CUH joined NHS England’s Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) programme in 2017 and has continued its digital advancements becoming the first UK trust to achieve Stage 7 of the international Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) in 2020 - the highest international quality standard that recognises the use of technology, data and analytics to support the delivery of high quality inpatient care.

Accelerated use of the Trust’s digital MyChart patient portal (now with over 115,000 patient users) for instance also enables patients to be more informed and involved in their care with access to their hospital health record, appointment information and test results automatically released to their My Chart.

Dr Afzal Chaudhry, head of digital and consultant nephrologist at CUH, said: “We have accelerated the use of technology, embedding digital working into everyday clinical care and practice, whilst also assisting other NHS trusts to advance their digital maturity.

“NHS England’s GDE programme supported us with initiatives including our implementation of ‘Scan for Safety’ - embedding a practise where clinicians use technology at the bedside to scan barcodes on patient wristbands, medications, expressed human milk, blood and blood products, and specimen collections. All barcodes are linked to our electronic record system to provide an added safety check.”