In 2015 The Government, working with NHS Digital, established a 5 year (long-term) plan/strategy for the IM&T function (Information Management and Technology) in healthcare.
who is NHS Digital?
NHS Digital is the trading name of the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), which was established in April 2013 by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. They are responsible for collecting, transporting, storing, analysing and disseminating the nation's health and social care data.
Virtually every aspect of modern life has been, and will continue to be, radically reshaped by innovation and technology – and healthcare is no exception. Sustained advances in computing and the democratisation of information are driving choice and control throughout our daily lives, giving us heightened expectations around digital services. The NHS is made up of hundreds of separate but linked organisations, and the burden of managing complex interactions and data flows between trusts, systems and individuals too often falls on patients and clinicians. Digital services and data interoperability give us the opportunity to free up time and resources to focus on clinical care and staying healthy.
what is an EPR (Electronic Patient Record) system?
EPR is a high-tech electronic patient record system which will modernise and improve the way patient care is delivered across any healthcare organisation. Introducing an EPR system will mean all patient information will be available electronically, on screen, at any hospital location, at any time. Currently patient information is collected in a number of different ways, using different computer systems.
These systems are limited in what they can and can’t do, and they can’t always be accessed in all areas of an acute hospital and/or community sites. This leads to an often very disjointed way of collecting and viewing our patient information.
An EPR system will manage a full patient record, available in multiple locations which ultimately improves how patients are cared for, thus leading to increased patient safety and a better patient experience.
who will use the EPR System?
Fundamentally anyone involved directly and indirectly in patient care, in both an acute hospital trust and primary/community healthcare. These roles vary from administration and clerical staff to nurses, HCA’s, ODP/A’s, AHP’s, doctors, paramedics and the list goes on!
what are the considerations?
The problem is a ‘one size fits all’ approach to EPR training does not work. Think about the roles mentioned above, does a medical secretary need to know about the functions a theatre nurse may use? Probably not.
SOME elements will overlap, such as patient demographics, a medical secretary, for example, will require access to such functions as appointment and referral management or clinical correspondence while a theatre nurse will need to know the functions that surround operation notes, medical charts and other inpatient episode functions.
This is why ‘role based training’ is absolutely essential when training all healthcare staff on clinical IT Systems. This replaces the ‘one size fits all’ model.
the solution:
Stripping clinical system training back to its core is the key to moving forward with a streamlined and fit for purpose training strategy that maps clinical and non-clinical roles in order to create role based, bite sized, targeted learning.
how is CLS part of the solution?
We have identified a gap in the current LMS market. While the focus remains on the Learning and Development elements of an LMS, quite often the training (non-mandatory) requirements are left behind with compliance driving at the forefront..
However, with more and more Acute NHS Trusts and other NHS organisations now on the precipice of implementing large scale EPR projects there is a real requirement to train thousands of NHS staff within a very tight timescale.
At ChamburyLS we have built a standalone EPR dashboard that holds a repository of interactive digital/virtual/eLearning courses and assessments, built using our Adapt authoring tool.
Using Totara Learn we can establish your organisational training role requirements, ensuring the right person gets the right training every time and be able to access their learning at any time, in any place 24/7/365.
a little bit about me…
I have a career history of working in the Healthcare (NHS & Private H/C), medical devices, automated pharmacy and supplies companies and Higher Education sectors. For over 20 years of my career I’ve worked in the NHS on IM&T Projects deploying EPR Systems, Clinical and non-clinical systems and various other IT Projects specialising in the training and digital learning work-stream.
I can help you get the processes in place to deploy your EPR training to non-clinical, clinical and medical staff. My experience puts me in a key position to not only help you procure the LMS to manage the rollout, but also to help, advise and make your vision a reality.
Like what you have just read...? Then get in touch.