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Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has further advanced its digital maturity by successfully going live with Altera Digital Health’s ePrescribing and Medicine Administration (ePMA). Disparate and paper-based workflows have been digitised and standardised across 56 inpatient wards and urgent care areas spanning the trust’s three hospital sites, significantly reducing variations in prescribing practice to enhance patient safety.
ePMA is the latest phase in the trust’s integrated EPR programme, having taken a modular, flexible approach. Harry de Voil, Chief Information Officer for Allied Health and Nursing at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals, said: “This latest ePMA go-live is an important step on our digital maturity journey. Not only is it key to driving efficiency, quality and patient flow improvements, but it is also a key enabler for other aspects of our EPR and patient safety enhancements further on in the journey, such as closed-loop e-prescribing.”
The system has streamlined the electronic discharge process by ensuring discharge medication orders are immediately available for dispensing, helping to avoid delays resulting from the transfer of the paper medication chart from ward to pharmacy.
For the clinicians, it is saving time producing electronic discharge summaries (EDS) for primary and community care providers. Prior to go-live, teams had to manually transcribe the prescriptions into the EDS. But now, the information is automatically pulled across from the solution, enhancing patient safety, improving patient flow and enabling clinicians to focus more on direct care.
Clinical decision support and alerts, such as allergy and interaction warnings, have been introduced based on the patient’s record and the medication being ordered, which is designed to support patient safety, reduce medication errors and improve adherence to evidence-based guidelines.
The system is also designed to eliminate patient safety risks and inefficiencies associated with handwritten drug charts being lost, illegible or transcribed incorrectly. Further efficiencies are being released on the wards with instant access to the complete patient’s record and easier identification of missed doses to ensure timely care. The solution also incorporates a decision-support tool for prescribing, adding further enhancements for patient safety.
Faiza Khan, Chief Pharmacist at the Trust, said: “Thanks to the huge amount of planning and preparation work in the weeks and months leading up to launching ePMA and the hard work and professionalism of all the teams involved, the phased roll out across the Trust over a four-day period went really well.
“In the first week alone, we have seen more than 800 patients transcribed from paper to the Sunrise ePMA solution, and more than 23,000 medicines have been recorded as administered. The rollout has been supported by more than 1,000 hours of on the ward support from members of the digital team.
“We’re already seeing the benefits in terms of patient safety and efficiencies for staff—including drug chart legibility, overdue drugs being clearly highlighted, reduced transcription errors and improved efficiency thanks to drug charts being readily available.
“Work will now continue to embed the system, working closely with clinical teams to incorporate feedback to further enhance the system’s safety and user-friendliness.”
Staff engagement was high throughout the implementation with positive attendance at weekly upscaling sessions, regular scenario-based training and user acceptance meetings. Over 100 digital champions were also enlisted to support staff and ensure a smooth transition to the new way of working.
Mark Hutchinson, Executive Vice President at Altera Digital Health (UK & EMEA), said: “I would like to extend my congratulations to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust for achieving another successful milestone on their EPR roadmap. They should be very proud because the immediate and longer-term benefits of ePMA are game changing when it comes to supporting safer and faster patient care. I’m pleased to report that this go-live means 100% of our UK clients are live with ePMA. The Worcestershire team excelled throughout the implementation, and it was great to be part of that experience. Worcestershire’s approach to lay a solid EPR foundation and build on that with modular rollouts such as this one places them in a strong position for long-term digital maturity and integrated care. We’ll be supporting them in this endeavour as they expand the functionality of their integrated EPR further.”
Media Contact:
Jodie Cheetham, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
jodie@silver-buck.com
07967 136010
About Altera Digital Health
Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT leader. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to bring next-level healthcare within reach. Our approach to solutions provides a fast, flexible and clinically driven roadmap towards digital maturity across integrated care systems.
With more than 2,700 hospitals in more than 15 countries, our solutions support healthcare providers, governments and military institutions around the world. By keeping the human user at the centre of our design methodology, we are supporting caregivers and helping patients meet and exceed their wellness goals. Together, with our clients, we’re driving a new era of healthcare. To learn more, visit uk.alterahealth.com.
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Altera Digital Health, a leading provider of electronic patient record (EPR) solutions in the UK, has announced a new partnership with PC PAL to enhance paediatric care within its Sunrise™ EPR system – with Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust becoming the first NHS trust to implement advanced growth charting as part of this innovation.
Through the integration of GrowthXP, PC PAL’s world-class paediatric growth charting application, Sunrise users in the UK can access an augmented depth of data to support accurate growth monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment planning. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust’s adoption of this functionality highlights how the flexibility and interoperability of Sunrise enables trusts to tailor solutions to meet specific clinical needs, seamlessly embedding specialist tools into everyday workflows.
The solution provides an extensive library of growth references, including local UK standards, as well as data covering over 50 rare disorders. By embedding within Sunrise, Altera is extending its commitment to equip paediatric specialists with advanced, clinically validated tools that improve both patient care and efficiency.
Dr. Shehriyar Khan, Clinical Information Officer for Women, Children and Sexual Health, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: “The transition from paper-based to digital growth charts has revolutionised the way healthcare professionals at MTW track and monitor growth. Replacing traditional paper-based charts with fully digitised charts has improved accuracy, accessibility, and standardisation, enabling our healthcare teams to make more informed decisions and provide better care. There has been overwhelmingly positive feedback from users after transitioning to the digital growth charts, leading to improved efficiency and productivity in the clinical environment.”
Mark Hutchinson, Executive Vice President, Altera Digital Health (UK & EMEA), said:
“We are delighted to bring world-leading growth charting capabilities into Sunrise, and proud to see Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust lead the way with our first UK implementation. This achievement demonstrates the capability and flexibility of Sunrise, enabling NHS organisations to integrate best-in-class resources that directly enhance patient outcomes.”
This collaboration reflects the shared vision of delivering innovative, evidence-based digital health solutions that empower clinicians and improve outcomes for children. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust’s pioneering work sets a strong example for paediatric care across the NHS.
About Altera Digital Health
Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT leader. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to bring next-level healthcare within reach. Our approach to solutions provides a fast, flexible and clinically driven roadmap towards digital maturity across integrated care systems.
With more than 2,700 hospitals in more than 15 countries, our solutions support healthcare providers, governments and military institutions around the world. By keeping the human user at the centre of our design methodology, we are supporting caregivers and helping patients meet and exceed their wellness goals. Together, with our clients, we’re driving a new era of healthcare. To learn more, visit uk.alterahealth.com.
About Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is a large acute hospital trust in the south east of England. Its core catchment areas are Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells and their surrounding boroughs, and it operates from two main clinical sites: Maidstone Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury, as well as Fordcombe Hospital which the Trust acquired in October 2024.
The Trust employs a team of 8,000 staff and provides a full range of general hospital services, and some areas of specialist complex care, to around 600,000 people living in the south of west Kent and the north of East Sussex. It also provides outpatient clinics and specialist care, including stroke and sexual health services, to a wider population at locations across the region. The Trust provides cancer services to around 2 million people in Kent, Medway and East Sussex, via the Kent Oncology Centre at Maidstone Hospital, and at Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury.
About PC PAL
PC PAL is a leading, global, medical software developer providing decision-support modules for integration into medical record systems, notably the child growth charting tool, GrowthXP. Our solutions are used in 20% of the top 100 ranked hospitals in the world.
Media Contact
Jodie Cheetham (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
Jodie@silver-buck.com
M: 07967 136010