North Tees and Hartlepool Hospital join Great North Care Record

North Tees and Hartlepool Hospital has integrated into the Great North Care Record using technology from ReStart.

The company provided interfaces from the trust’s health connect integration engine to share patient demographic, visit, appointment and allergy information into the Great North Care Record.

The partnership aims to support the expansion of the shared care record across the North East.

The trust engaged ReStart to bolster its interoperability and configuration capabilities and provide information to Cerner’s health information exchange (HIE) – the system used by the Great North Care Record to connect patient information from GPs, local hospitals, social care, community and mental health teams.

Paul Savage, project manager digital programmes at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, said: “By providing a rich picture of each individual across both health and social services, the Great North Care Record will deliver the holistic information of patient interactions across the region that will enable a more rounded approach to patient care.

“One of the challenges was a tight deadline. Planned upgrades to the HIE between April 2021 and July 2021 meant a complete development freeze – we had to get our interfaces up and running by the end of March 2021 or wait several months.

“Further delays caused by upgrades to the hardware at NTHFT meant we were really pushed against that deadline.”

North Tees and Hartlepool is now one of eight trusts in the North East Cumbria region connected to the Great North Care Record. In the future the trust plans to share documents and discharge summaries as well as pathology and radiology results to further enhance the patient information collected.

The trust plans to continue working with ReStart for mentoring and training as it enhances its internal skills base.

“Further interoperability will be a foundation for the trust’s ongoing digital vision and delivery – for example, there’ll be greater collaboration with South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Savage added.

“ReStart’s training, mentoring, and knowledge transfer will help us to take a more complete view of the trust’s interoperability goals, rather than looking at each individual requirement separately.”

Mike Fitzgerald, head of technical business development ReStart, said: “As interoperability requirements continue to expand throughout the NHS, it is important for trusts to build confidence and knowledge to support strategic direction.

“NTHFT’s [North Tees and Hartlepool Hospital] partnership with ReStart has not just provided essential interfaces with the Great North Care Record but also access to our IMX suite of services and solutions which offer a seamless way to embrace and scale interoperability across a wider health and social care community.”