North Mid leaps into top 20% of digitally advanced Trusts in England
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (North Mid) has been officially accredited to the HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) Stage 5 rating. It now means that North Mid is in the top 20% of trusts for digital maturity in England, moving up from fourth from the bottom in 2018.
The HIMSS EMRAM rating system is an international quality standard which measures the adoption and maturity of a health facility’s inpatient EMR capabilities from 0 to 7, with Stage 7 being the highest possible rating.
According to HIMSS criteria, Stage 5 means that the Trust has established clear standards for improving safety, minimising errors, and recognising the importance of healthcare IT.
Three years ago, North Mid embarked upon its Global Digital Exemplar programme. This national digital scheme aimed to support NHS trusts to improve their digital maturity and in turn help enable better health, better care, financial sustainability and better experiences for staff and patients. North Mid has been working in partnership with the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust as its “fast follower” to share its experience of being a digitally advanced Trust.
Since then, the Trust has established a clinically-led digital leadership team, introduced a single electronic patient record so that all healthcare records are in one place, implemented electronic prescribing, electronic observations, electronic noting and single-sign-on for clinical applications. All of this has set the foundations for the next phase of the Trust’s digital development, which includes empowering patients to manage their own appointments and access their hospital records online, and making greater use of hospital and population health data to address health inequalities and improve care.
Brendan Mahony, Chief Information Officer, said: “We are thrilled that North Mid has successfully achieved a Stage 5 rating.
“It is a testament to the hard work of our teams over the last three years to transform the way we deliver healthcare so that it is safer, more efficient and improves patients’ experience. Achieving this international HIMSS standard reflects how our clinical teams at North Mid have embraced technology, and are using state-of-the-art clinical systems, data and analytics, as part of everyday clinical practice to support the outstanding care given to local people.”