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In June of this year, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) went live with a new Electronic Patient Record system, replacing paper-based records across four hospitals. Egress Group’s healthcare division played a fundamental role in the eLancs programme by ensuring 22 clinical system interfaces were developed, implemented and ready for go-live, whilst also moving the Trust’s Integration Engine.

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22 different clinical systems successfully interfaced to the new Cerner Millennium EPR system … whilst also moving the Trust’s Integration Engine.

Any Electronic Patient Record system change is a significant undertaking. Integrating numerous critical clinical systems with a new system is not for the faint-hearted, but two months on and the eLancs project is bedding in and quietly starting to make a real difference to patients and their care teams. Undeterred by complex interfacing challenges, Egress is delighted to have played their part in this transformational journey for ELHT.

ELHT has two teaching and two community hospitals with more than 1000 beds and treats almost 3/4s of a million people per year. Moving to a new single, integrated EPR system, Cerner Millennium, required end-to-end management and delivery of 22 different clinical interfaces in use across the Trust.

Egress Group’s healthcare division was chosen to undertake the task, made even more challenging by the Trust’s requirement to move Integration Engine from Rhapsody to InterSystems. Egress safely delivered the TIE move and successfully designed, developed, tested and implemented both one-way and bi-directional interfaces for the 22 downstream systems ready for go-live in June 2023.

The timely completion of the fundamental system interoperability requirements helped pave the way for success for the wider eLancs project. Such a significant programme of change relied on several partners working in close collaboration to achieve the very best results for the Trust and the populations they serve. Not to mention tremendous efforts and dedication from the Trust’s own teams, from project leadership to clinicians, support staff and other system users.

Timely & robust completion of the interoperability requirements paved the way for success for the eLancs project … a significant transformational journey made possible by true collaboration between the Trust’s team & all the partners involved.

Andrew Meiner, Healthcare Practice Director at Egress, commented:

“Interfacing between hospital systems is often challenging and this project was no exception, with additional complexity added by moving the Trust’s Integration Engine at the same time. We are, of course, delighted to have safely delivered on all requirements within the project timelines.

It was a pleasure to work with ELHT and their supplier community, including St Vincent’s Consulting, Nautilus, and Oracle Cerner. Everyone involved was committed to ensuring the project was successfully delivered and would be able to realise the anticipated benefits as soon as possible. These include seamless access to real-time patient data, better informed clinical decision-making, more efficient care coordination, improved patient safety, and, ultimately, providing enhanced quality of care to East Lancashire residents.

It takes times to see and feel the positive results of such a huge programme of change, but they are steadily materialising for the Trust, their staff and the patients they care for.”

Find out more about the eLancs project here.

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