Two pioneering NHS organisations have been recognised at the 2018 HTN Awards for their innovative work using InterSystems technology to help transform care for patients.
The judges, who included GPs and clinical commissioning group IT leads, as well as project managers, clinical leads and IT directors from acute trusts and mental health and community providers, selected Coordinate My Care and North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust as winners.
Coordinate My Care, an NHS clinical service that is transforming end of life and urgent care for patients in London, was chosen as the winner of the ‘Digital at the Point of Care’ award. The service has used InterSystems HealthShare to build digital urgent care plans for patients with urgent or end-of-life care needs, sharing the plans with the capital’s emergency and out-of-hours providers so that they can deliver the most appropriate care and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
Sean White, editor, Health Tech Newspaper, which hosts the awards, said: “The Digital at the Point of Care category was highly competitive with many fantastic projects that have made an impact to patients, professionals and organisations. The judges were particularly impressed with the financial savings from the Coordinate My Care project, noting savings of £2,100 per patient, and to date 50,000 CMC plans have been created. As well as the savings, it was clear the project has made a real impact for patients and how their care is managed.”
Professor Julia Riley, clinical lead at Coordinate My Care, said: “We are committed to empowering patients to tell the NHS and care providers about the care they want to receive at a crucial point of their life. Recognition at awards like this is important in sharing just what is possible through the creation of digital care plans, so that we can continue to expand the reach of the service to more and more patients.”
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has been pioneering in England as the first acute trust to use InterSystems TrakCare as its electronic patient record. The trust, which is a fast follower in NHS England’s global digital exemplar programme, is advancing digital maturity and looking beyond the borders of the hospital as it presses ahead with ambitions to achieve the globally recognised HIMSS EMRAM stage 7 in just three years. Judges selected the trust as winner of the ‘Impact of the Year’ award.
Sean White said: “The North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust project clearly demonstrated the benefits to staff. The project was backed up with strong cost savings, and it was clear the project has changed the organisation significantly and really delivered for its staff.”
Dr. Graham Evans, chief information and technology officer, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Enabling efficient care is essential if we are to continue to meet patients’ needs in the NHS. Our work in North Tees and Hartlepool shows how technology can play a role in reconfiguring services, and in enhancing the working lives of staff. I’m very grateful to the judges for selecting our project for a prestigious health technology award. But it is important to remember that technology forms only part of the solution – managing people and process is just as crucial to achieving successful outcomes.”
Commenting on the awards, David Hancock, client engagement director at InterSystems, said: “Our customers continue to show what can be achieved with technology for improving the lives of patients and staff in the NHS. Projects like this are about transforming the way our health and care providers can deliver sustainable services in ways that matter to patients and the people delivering their care. It is great to see the strong impact achieved by these two pioneering NHS customers recognised by peers for others to see.”
