Rotherham plans EPR turn-around

The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust aims to have resolved the majority of issues with its Meditech v6.0 electronic patient record implementation by the end of August. 

The trust submitted an EPR recovery plan to Monitor in May following an intervention by the foundation trust regulator and persistent problems with the system, which resulted in the trust stopping all go-lives of the EPR.

A letter from Monitor to The Rotherham at the time said: “Data quality remains a significant risk. The trust is currently unable to rely on coding, case mix or activity data from the EPR system, significantly compromising the trust’s ability to manage performance effectively.”

The recovery plan, obtained by EHI under the Freedom of Information Act, says the trust would take 90 days to resolve the majority of functional issues, data quality and re-validation problems, improve usability for clinical staff and reduce the time taken to enter data.

“After 60 days we will start to review and plan for the introduction of the pharmacy module which will bring significant benefits in terms of patient safety, further reduction in data entry and speedier discharge for patients and enhanced communication across the health community,” it says.

After being found in significant breach of its terms of authorisation by Monitor in February, Rotherham hired an external consultant, Larry Blevins, to conduct a review of the EPR.

The trust has decided to rework the system and will begin implementing new functionalities in the coming months. However, the trust board papers confirm it will install TPP’s SystmOne in A&E.

“From this point a clear prioritised plan for on-going construction of the system will be developed using the same methodology as the re-work programme,” says the recovery plan.

It adds that the trust has introduced several systems and processes to improve assurance and governance, such as forming a new clinical user group and a new change management control process.

“Clinical leads will be asked to attend the board to give their own personal views of progress on a monthly basis as additional assurance measure to the board,” the plan says.

Last month, the trust began a pilot called “the ortho project”, to reduce the time clinicians spend inputting data.

“Following a period of live use a number of clinical users have become dissatisfied with the design and construction of their workflows,” says the plan.

“In addition, multiple issues have been discovered and the associated work -around processes have produced problems such as with data accuracy.”

The pilot aims to re-engage orthopaedic users, “through analysis and redesign of workflows and identifying usability issues with the system.”

“This may or may not include elements of system reconfiguration and many will impact trust wide.”

Blevins is an external EPR expert flown in from the US. On a salary of £25,000 a month, his three-month contract has been extended.

The trust is also in the process of recruiting a new chief executive after former chief executive, Brian James, retired last year.