I am delighted to announce that we have received approval of national funding to rollout the Epic electronic health record from Eastern Devon to Northern Devon as part of the continued partnership and proposed integration of NDHT and RD&E.
This is a fantastic investment for patients and the community. Having a shared patient record system is a key part of supporting the proposed joining of our trusts, which aims to provide stronger and more sustainable care for patients across Northern and Eastern Devon.
Adrian Harris, medical director for NDHT and RD&E said: “This is really exciting news. Having a shared patient record across NDHT and RD&E will help us to develop the way we deliver care to our patients in a way that helps to mitigate the remoteness of NDDH and rurality of Northern Devon, and make the best use of our shared workforce.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital has supported us to stay connected to our patients in a COVID-19 secure way when they don’t need to be seen on site.
“Digital technology and a shared patient record present us with a lot of opportunity to improve how we deliver care for our patients, both in our hospitals and remotely.”
A common patient record will enable clinician sharing and virtual clinical input. For example, where services are networked across sites, a shared patient record will mean that somebody who lives in Hartland can have a medication review with a consultant in Exeter remotely, saving a long journey.
Improving the visibility of information between our teams will also help improve safety and quality through supporting our teams to work together and make decisions. This will lead to better outcomes for patients.
Angela Hibbard, chief finance officer for NDHT and RD&E said: “It is great to see significant investment coming into Northern Devon to facilitate our proposed integration.
“I want to say a huge thank you to my colleagues who worked so hard to develop our business case for Epic and I want to thank the NHS England/Improvement regional teams for their support.”
Following this announcement, the next step is to rollout the My Care programme at NDHT to support the implementation of the Epic system. We will provide updates as this work progresses.