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After five years of successfully using multiple Cerner Millennium solutions, Newham University Hospital NHS Trust is extending the capabilities of its electronic patient record (EPR) system by using the Cerner Experience Centre to identify additional opportunities for clinical process improvement.
“One of the reasons Newham chose Cerner as the clinical information systems provider was because Cerner would be able to help move beyond simply implementing an EPR platform and instead help us use the EPR to optimise clinical processes and continue to improve patient safety,” said Michaela Morris, Chief Operating Officer of Newham University Hospital NHS Trust.
“Our clinicians and staff are happy with the Cerner Millennium solutions in place at Newham and used the Cerner Experience Centre approach to implement additional functionality beyond what exists in our solution set.”
Newham has realised numerous benefits from using Cerner Millennium solutions during the past five years, including:
- Online patient result viewing, which allows clinicians to instantly access patient information from any computer terminal in the hospital and through secure remote connections from their home offices;
- Online documentation of A&E triage forms including an assessment of patient acuity, creating a more efficient A&E triage process; and
- Results viewing via flow sheet providing real-time display of documented laboratory, radiology and patient care results.
By working together with Cerner through the Cerner Experience Centre model, Newham will focus on realising additional benefits beyond those already achieved. Specifically, Newham will work with Cerner experts to develop plans to achieve benefits related to:
- Helping meet the four hour A&E wait times with current performance at 99.14 percent;
- Improving the prescribing of medication by using solutions to identify patients, medications and surgical supplies with bar codes and use scanners to document medication admin and surgical supply usage; and
- Finding ways to reduce pulling paper patient notes, which currently costs the Trust more than £500,000 a year, by identifying individual clinicians who are underutilising the EPR and working with them one-on-one to increase their EPR usage.
“The Cerner Experience Centre enables Trusts to find additional ways to maximise their Cerner Millennium solutions as the healthcare environment is constantly changing around them,” said Jake Sorg, UK Solutions Centre vice president.
“By staying connected with Cerner through the Cerner Engagement Model, Newham University Hospital will be able to realise further benefits and find new ways to use technology to help achieve its organisational imperatives.”
The Cerner Experience Centre brings the collective experience and best recommendations of Cerner Millennium users directly to Trusts to help assess utilisation of solution capabilities and to develop plans to achieve further process and clinical improvements through the use of Cerner solutions.
Through this approach, Cerner doctors, nurses, pharmacists, software architects, EPR team, and support staff work directly with Trusts to identify key organisation imperatives, such as financial savings or patient safety initiatives, and aligns them with the capabilities of Cerner Millennium solutions to achieve the desired outcome.
The Experience Centre is an extension of the Cerner Engagement Model, which provides continuous support and learning opportunities to Trusts throughout their healthcare information technology (HIT) journey.
“Working closely with Cerner has been critical to the success of our HIT initiatives at Newham,” Morris said.
“The continuous support we’ve received through direct engagement has enabled us to move beyond mere adoption of the system into achievement of benefits that are helping us improve patient care.”
Newham has created a close alignment between its use of Cerner Millennium solutions and the Trust’s strategic imperatives of Board Capability and Governance Arrangements, Sustainability of Performance and Service Configuration to increase operational efficiency and build a competitive advantage.
Cerner helped Newham build benchmarking metrics via reporting tools, complete value reviews to enhance the user experience and improve satisfaction by setting goals and objectives to deliver true value through qualitative and quantitative benefits.
