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Nearly 700 new features and enhancements to drive financial and clinical improvements
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – June 17, 2025 – Altera Digital Health, a global health IT leader, today announced the general availability of Sunrise™ 25.1, the latest release of its complete electronic health record (EHR) system for mid-size hospitals and health systems. Designed in close collaboration with clients, Sunrise 25.1 introduces nearly 700 updates and new features that sharpen financial and ambulatory workflows, streamline navigation, minimize the cognitive load for users and make critical information accessible at the point of care.
While hospital margins improved in 2024, healthcare organizations continue to grapple with competitive labor market conditions, increasing costs and a rise in bad debt and charity care. Sunrise 25.1 addresses these realities by embedding best-practice workflows and flexible configuration tools that support revenue integrity, clinical productivity and enterprise-wide efficiency. For example, the Sunrise™ Financial Manager module contains a billing hub that consolidates billing requests, claims and self-pay into three easily accessible tabs that streamline workflows for staff members across the revenue cycle.
Sunrise 25.1 also represents a significant uplift in clinical workflow satisfaction and efficiency for clients. Within Sunrise™ Ambulatory Care, enhanced patient management features include a unified list for appointments and walk-ins, easy location viewing, enhanced visual cues and clinical assignments, and new mini-views that enable users to toggle between patients with a single click. On the acute side, users can enter, view and maintain orders at the patient level and enter queries without exact search term requirements. Additionally, Sunrise™ Mobile’s new, intuitive icons and modernized user interface enable clinicians to use the system more seamlessly so they can focus more on patient care.
“This release brings meaningful advancements to the front lines of care and operations, delivering tools that help teams move faster, work smarter and make strides where it matters most to them,” said Shanna DeLeo, SVP of Development for Sunrise, Altera Digital Health. “Sunrise 25.1 is a direct result of listening to our clients and a commitment to continuous progress. I am incredibly proud of the Sunrise team for delivering on our promise to keep elevating healthcare for clinicians, staff members and the patients they serve.”
Learn more about new product features and enhancements in Sunrise 25.1 here.
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT leader, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to bring next-level healthcare within reach. Altera’s approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered—we see the summit of what healthcare can be, but rather than total transformation, we’re focused on helping organizations take the steps they need to get there. Altera designs digital health services that lead healthcare to a higher place, while we guide those we partner with, all along the way. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com.
Media Contact
AlteraMediaRelations@alterahealth.com
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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Bolton NHS Foundation Trust has become the first trust in Greater Manchester to implement district nurse referrals in its Sunrise™ Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system, powered by Altera Digital Health. It marks a major digital leap forward in integrating care across secondary and community services.
Clunky paper processes and fragmented communication have been replaced with a streamlined, digital workflow, enhancing patient safety and enabling teams to deliver faster, coordinated care across care settings.
Zoe Fitzsimmons, CXIO at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, summed up the impact: “The district nurse referral within Sunrise has been transformative for the acute and district nursing teams. Now with one single source of truth, the teams no longer have to duplicate work or spend time investigating if a referral has been completed. This single process allows for one route to referral.”
With referral forms now fully embedded into the Electronic Patient Record (EPR), clinical teams can manage referrals directly within their existing workflow therefore there is no need to switch between systems. This streamlined approach has now not only boosted efficiency but has also enhanced user satisfaction. As referrals are created, key patient information is auto-populated from the EPR, saving staff time and reducing the risk of manual errors. It’s a smarter, faster way to handle referrals so clinicians can focus more on patient care and less on administration.
Take wound care as an example: when a patient has been assessed by the tissue viability team, detailed notes, treatment plans, and medication information are automatically pulled through into the referral. District nurses no longer need to chase down information; they’re fully briefed before their visit. As a result, they arrive at the patient’s home with the right dressings, supplies, and clear plan of care. It’s a seamless handover that reduces delays, enhances efficiency, and ensures patients receive safe, informed continuous care.
Patient safety was at the heart of the implementation. A significant portion of the rollout focused on aligning the referral process with complex transcribing and medication policies to ensure full compliance. The referral form was intelligently designed with mandatory fields, embedded guidance, real-time prompts, and conditional logic ensuring that no critical information is missed before submission. It’s a smart, safety-first approach that gives clinical teams confidence while reducing the risk of errors.
The results speak for themselves: reduced patient incidents, fewer inappropriate referrals, and stronger clinical oversight, all supported by a complete, traceable audit trail. The streamlined process also delivers measurable time savings across multiple stages of the referral pathway, enabling clinicians to focus more on care and less on admin. It’s a safer, more efficient system that drives real operational and clinical value.
“We ran time and motion studies and found nurses were spending approximately two hours a day ringing the wards to compile missing referral information so we could triage the referrals correctly, said Stacey Leigh, Digital Matron and Digital Clinical Safety Officer at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust. “The teams would also run into issues when contacting the wards if members of staff who completed the form weren’t on shift and the information couldn’t be located.”
All community triage nurses and district nurse managers now have read access to the Sunrise EPR system, enabling them to review the patient’s clinical course, including the most recent admission and previous visits. Zoe Fitzsimmons added: “This will be enhanced further when the community teams go fully live on Sunrise later this year and can continue to document in the patient records as a seamless entry from acute to community.”
Referrals are now sent directly to a dedicated list within Sunrise, eliminating reliance on email and reducing the risk of missed or delayed communications. Each referral includes a direct link to the patient’s full EPR record, giving district nursing teams immediate access to all relevant information. They can quickly accept or decline the referral, while acute staff can track the referral status in real time, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks and everyone stays aligned throughout the patient’s care journey.
Rachael Fox, Executive Vice President, EMEA at Altera Digital Health, commented: “The progress at Bolton is a testament to what can be achieved with Altera’s highly configurable and flexible Sunrise EPR with a clear vision and a robust digital infrastructure. By embedding referrals directly into the EPR, Bolton has significantly improved communication and coordination between acute and community teams, enhancing both safety and efficiency.
What’s even more exciting is how this work is expanding access to comprehensive patient information within community care, enabling clinicians to have real-time visibility into treatment plans, clinical notes, and medications, empowering them to deliver informed, proactive care from the moment of discharge.
This is a powerful example of how our Sunrise platform enables continuous care across the entire healthcare setting, breaking down silos and creating a truly unified patient record. We’re proud to be supporting Bolton as it extends these capabilities further and unlocks even greater value across more community services and care pathways.”
Media Contact:
Jodie Cheetham (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.
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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Recertification underscores organizational dedication to quality and reliability
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – April 22, 2025 – Altera Digital Health, a global health IT leader, today announced that its Sunrise™ suite of solutions has successfully achieved ISO 9001:2015 recertification following the completion of a comprehensive external audit conducted by NQA. The new certificate is now in effect and covers the full three-year cycle through 2028.
The ISO 9001 standard sets globally recognized requirements for quality management systems, which support organizations’ efforts to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory expectations. Recertification affirms compliance and a deep integration of quality principles across operations—from development and deployment to support and continuous improvement.
The Sunrise electronic health record (EHR) system provides a single clinical and financial patient record across acute and ambulatory care venues, helping hospitals and health systems to deliver exceptional patient care, streamline billing processes and gain valuable insights into patient outcomes. The ISO recertification coincides with the upcoming June 2025 release of Sunrise 25.1, which introduces nearly 700 new features driven by feedback from clinicians and health IT leaders that enhance workflow efficiency, reduce complexity and improve system usability.
“Altera’s commitment to continuous improvement isn’t just about meeting standards—it’s about exceeding expectations and earning trust with every release,” said Jay Adams, Executive Vice President, Sunrise, Altera Digital Health. “This recertification is a testament to the discipline, focus and professionalism our Sunrise team brings to the table every day to raise the bar for ourselves and for the clients we serve. Altera extends its thanks to all those who participated in the 2025 ISO 9001 external audits for their essential contributions to this successful outcome.”
For more information about Sunrise, visit alterahealth.com/sunrise.
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT leader, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to bring next-level healthcare within reach. Altera’s approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered—we see the summit of what healthcare can be, but rather than total transformation, we’re focused on helping organizations take the steps they need to get there. Altera designs digital health services that lead healthcare to a higher place, while we guide those we partner with, all along the way. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com.
Media Contact
AlteraMediaRelations@alterahealth.com
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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The Clinical Health Psychology team (“Psychology”) at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (LHCH) has extended, digitised and integrated its service into its established trust-wide EPR. This digital change is enabling a patients’ psychological care to be documented alongside medical care for a fuller record.
The innovation is releasing considerable and far-ranging benefits, such as streamlined processes, time savings, improved communication and care co-ordination, and enhanced patient safety.
Discussing the difference the system is making, Dr Alexandra Boughey, Principal Clinical Psychologist – Cystic Fibrosis Service and Operational Lead, said: “With our patient’s psychological notes now managed on the EPR and integrated with the patient’s full medical record, we can set up a team of specific users that have access to view the psychological notes.”
“We’re saving so much time from being able to input our notes directly into the system and automatically sharing with the multi-disciplinary team (MDT). It’s been game changing, when you consider how time consuming the process was before. Previously, we would have to make notes on paper, transcribe them into word documents, file the document, and email/visit the wards to update the MDT with our recommendations.”
Psychology set out to deliver their service using one digital system which could manage a unified patient record, to better support the team and patient care. To be effective, they needed a flexible solution that was capable of making notes available or confidential to other members of the MDT. This was crucial functionality given the confidential nature of psychology case notes and being able to maintain a patient’s privacy wishes, if required.
The Trust decided to utilise its existing Sunrise™ EPR system provided by Altera Digital Health. In a matter of months, Psychology, Altera and the trust’s digital team worked together to configure the system to meet the unique needs of the psychology service. Today, the service is using the system to manage patient questionnaires, appointments, referrals, discharges and communicate with the MDT.
Sunrise™ is also facilitating the collection of meaningful data to monitor and report on specific psychology key performance indicators (KPIs), which differ hugely to medical KPIs.
With all patient data together in one place, in real-time, it’s providing staff with a fuller picture of a patient, supporting all members of the MDT to make more informed care decisions at the point of care.
Paula Dyce, Advanced Nurse Practitioner – CF Diabetes, commented: “Since being able to have Psychology on our EPR system it has helped us improve patient care and communication across professionals. It has streamlined the link between physical health and mental health appointments.”
LHCH manages a lot of critically unwell patients and nearly 130,000 patient visits every year. This makes the service that the Psychology team provides to the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) vital. The increased risks to patients cared for in the ITU makes an integrated system even more important, supporting the team to manage escalations and monitor patients more effectively with accessible notes and alerts for patients that require mental health support. The risk of losing paper notes and electronic files has also decreased which is contributing to enhanced patient safety.
Prior to the Psychology digitisation, the EPR was already enabling the trust to be 99.9% paperless and complete all clinical documentation, order communications and prescribing. The integrated EPR has supported the LHCH’s digital transformation, enabling it to receive an ‘Outstanding’ CQC rating twice and achieve HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7 in its latest digital maturity assessment.
Rachael Fox, Executive Vice President, UK & EMEA, Altera Digital Health, said: “This latest digital transformation is a fantastic addition to Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s exemplary digital journey so far. They are leading the way as digital-first trust and showcasing how it can support outstanding service delivery.”
ENDS
Media Contact:
Jodie Cheetham (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.
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise™ electronic patient record with integrated patient administration system has gone live at Fordcombe Hospital, a hospital acquired by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW) from private provider Spire Healthcare. MTW officially took over the running of the renamed Fordcombe Hospital on 1 October 2024 following the purchase of the site in April 2024. MTW is now helping to enhance clinical services and provide additional NHS capacity across the region.
Altera’s integrated solution is supporting the hospital as the Trust expands care capacity and treats a significant number of the longest-waiting patients in Kent and Medway. Almost 1,700 patients have already been transferred to MTW for treatment and a further 800 will be transferred by the end of March 2025.
Fordcombe Hospital is the 23rd NHS hospital across England to go live with Altera’s Sunrise EPR. MTW has been successfully using the system throughout its other hospital sites since introducing it in 2021, when it went live across all 32 adult inpatient wards, three paediatric areas, two emergency departments, order communications, and outpatient services.
The rollout at Fordcombe Hospital took less than six months. Once the IT infrastructure was in place, patients were registered on the hospital systems and the new teams were trained on how to use the integrated PAS and Sunrise within two weeks.
MTW is using the newly acquired hospital to provide planned care in ear, nose and throat; orthopaedics; gastroenterology; diagnostics; and endoscopy. The additional facilities include two theatres; 28 inpatient and day care beds; additional diagnostics including X-ray, MRI, CT and endoscopy; and a number of consultation and treatment rooms.
Sue Forsey, Director of IT at MTW, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for the NHS in Kent and Medway that is benefiting patients across our communities. I’m pleased we’ve been able to support the new facility with an effective EPR foundation as it moves forward to reduce waiting lists and respond to increasing demand. The trust is already seeing the impact the additional capacity is making to patient care and experience. I want to thank everyone involved for their fantastic support and hard work over the last six months.”
Rachael Fox, Executive Vice President, EMEA at Altera Digital Health, said: “I would like to congratulate MTW on successfully acquiring Fordcombe Hospital and going live with its integrated Sunrise EPR. The Altera team takes great pride in providing the trust with its integrated clinical and patient administration solution to support increasing capacity. Completing the EPR implementation within six months is an excellent achievement. Sunrise can be deployed at pace and scale, and delivers convergence across multiple sites to adapt to the increasing requirements in healthcare delivery and data sharing, due to its flexibility and agility.”
MTW is one of the best performing acute hospital trusts in the country against a backdrop of record-breaking attendances, and colleagues recently ranked the trust in the top 10 hospital trusts to work for in England.
ENDS
Media Contact:
Jodie Cheetham (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
07967 136010
Notes to editor
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 clinically driven roadmaps that help advance 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 in 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 Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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30 July 2024: Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) has become the first organisation in the UK to deploy Altera Digital Health’s patient flow solution. The Trust expects the system to be integral in realising operational efficiencies and improving patient safety and care, including making discharge more streamlined.
The system has gone live at the Trust’s Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, which provides a base for emergency and acute services for 326,000 local people. Ward staff, along with the bed management, portering, domestic, and infection prevention and control teams, are using the system either directly or via integration with its existing Altera Sunrise™ EPR system.
Altera Patient Flow ™ is providing visibility of capacity with real-time insight into bed status, bed availability and patient movement across the whole hospital that it didn’t have before. Greater oversight is making it possible to take a proactive approach to manage emergency and elective patient flow.
The solution went live in March. Pam Green, Deputy Director for Clinical Informatics and Chief Nursing Information Officer at WWL, said: “Overall the rollout has been really successful. Staff have embraced the change and the technology adoption has been brilliant. They understand that by supporting the service improvement it won’t just make a difference to their working day but will ultimately have a big impact on our patients. We’ve had some very positive feedback from staff in terms of usability and accessibility and releasing time to reinvest back into patient care.”
Patient Flow has digitally transformed the portering and domestic workflows. Instead of tracking tasks with pen and paper, the domestic team can move around with an iPad, which clearly shows their job list. Similarly, the portering team’s radios have been replaced by iPhones to manage requests and worklists via an app.
The domestic team is benefitting from the system automatically allocating jobs in the vicinity where they’ve finished cleaning a bed to streamline workflow and use capacity as effectively as possible. If a bed is reserved in the system, a priority clean will automatically be generated for the bed over others that are vacant. This enables patients to move around the hospital more quickly and efficiently.
Kevin Parker-Evans, Chief Nursing Officer at WWL, said: “The digital transformation has driven a significant culture change. Throughout my career bed management has always been a paper collation exercise , but paper is never live. By the time you’ve finished gathering the information it will have changed. That’s why the bed managers particularly like the bed board in the system. They can access a real-time glance of every bed on site, which shows whether a bed is occupied/vacant, along with the cleaning status. It’s given us a true live state and now we intend to use it to navigate our bed and capacity meetings.”
The solution is also giving the Trust oversight of capacity from an infection prevention perspective. Staff can see areas that are infected and can’t be used or need reviewing. Historically, this was managed with spreadsheets. If a patient has an infection status and they leave a bed permanently, the system will automatically generate a bed clean to increase resource utilisation and minimise delays.
The Trust is also using the system to improve discharge processes to gain further efficiency savings. With bed management, a lot of time was wasted by staff being reliant on manually collecting discharge data by visiting each ward. Patient Flow will automate these processes and give more visibility and autonomy to manage the flow of patients who are coming on and off the wards, helping the Trust increase the number of patients that are discharged before midday.
Following a current/future state analysis, the Trust is projected to double the number of people discharged before noon. Longer term, it is aiming to achieve 40% of morning discharges by 10 a.m.
Mary Fleming, Chief Executive of WWL, said: “WWL is a digitally enabled Trust following investment in our EPR infrastructure and combined with patient flow management it will provide crucial real-time data for decision-making. This will play a major role in creating a seamless, integrated healthcare system that prioritises patient needs, enhances staff efficiency and keeps pace with the demands of the modern healthcare landscape.”
Rachael Fox, Executive Vice President, EMEA at Altera Digital Health, said: “We are glad to be building on our digital partnership with WWL with the deployment of Altera Patient Flow. The Trust is pioneering its use to prioritise flow, which will be a key digital enabler to unlock workflow optimisation, increased capacity and enhanced care. Planning has started on rolling the system out further across the Trust’s Wrightington Hospital and day surgery sites.”
ENDS
For media inquiries, please contact:
Jodie Cheetham, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
jodie@silver-buck.com
07967 136010
About Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a major acute trust serving the people of Wigan and Leigh. Innovative and forward thinking, the trust is dedicated to providing the best possible healthcare for the local population in the Wigan Borough and surrounding areas.
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 Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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EAST GRINSTEAD, ENGLAND – April 18, 2024 – Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (QVH), a specialist centre providing life-changing reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation for patients across the South East of England, has signed a five-year contract with Altera Digital Health to deliver an electronic patient record (EPR) system.
To meet NHS England’s target for trusts to have an electronic patient record by March 2026, QVH has purchased Altera Sunrise™ EPR, which includes Core Clinicals, Order Comms, eObservations, Secure Health Messaging, Mobile, Patient Flow, Clinical Performance Manager, Theatres, e-Prescribing, and PAS, all supported by Altera Managed Services.
A fully integrated EPR is central to the Trust’s digital strategy and will support staff to do more with connected information and enhance patient care. Considerable efficiency savings are expected to be released in areas where the system will replace paper processes and prevent the need to log into separate systems to compile patient information. The valuable time saved will enable staff to focus on providing the best possible care for patients.
QVH’s world-leading clinical teams provide specialist surgery and non-surgical treatment for people across the south east and beyond. It offers regional and national services in conditions of the hands and eyes (corneoplastics), head and neck cancer and skin cancer, reconstructive breast surgery, maxillofacial surgery and prosthetics. QVH also runs a minor injuries unit, therapies services and a sleep disorder centre.
The trust is the second specialist trust to select Altera’s EPR, following Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which was recently awarded HIMSS Stage 7 accreditation.
Kirstin Timmins, Chief Operating Officer, at QVH said: “Finalising the contract with Altera is an important milestone for QVH. Developing an EPR is an exciting project for us and a significant part of our digital and overall organisational strategy. The EPR system will support us to seamlessly collaborate and deliver timely, informed care, significantly reducing the time taken to access patient information. Colleagues were impressed with the benefits of Altera’s solution and are eager to progress the project and plan to go live.”
Colleagues working in QVH’s community services will benefit from remote access to the integrated record, with the ability to contribute to a patient’s record during home visits and appointments at regional clinics. These episodes of care will be updated in real-time and available for staff to access in the main hospital site.
The flexibility and integration capabilities of the Altera EPR solution will be utilised heavily at QVH, with data from other NHS trusts available for clinicians to view as part of the new electronic patient record.
Rachael Fox, Executive Vice President, EMEA at Altera Digital Health, said, “We are delighted to be partnering with QVH to deliver its EPR. The team’s enthusiasm for change has been amazing and staff is already seeing how transformative the impact will be. We can’t wait to get started on delivery and quickly advance the trust’s digital maturity.”
ENDS
For media inquiries, please contact:
Jodie Cheetham, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
jodie@silver-buck.com
07967 136010
About Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
QVH is a leading specialist centre for reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation, helping people who have been damaged or disfigured through accidents or disease. For more information please visit www.qvh.nhs.uk.
About Altera Digital Health
Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT innovator. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform 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 Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (LHCH) is honoured to join an elite group of hospitals around the world who have successfully validated against the HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) international EMRAM Stage 7 standards.
EMRAM – the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model – assesses a health facility’s adoption and maturity of its digital capabilities. Being validated at Level 7 confirms that LHCH has achieved the highest international quality standard for excellence in digital and data to support outstanding patient care and services.
A rigorous on-site assessment took place this week, with LHCH being the first trust in Europe to be assessed against the new and more extensive Stage 7 HIMSS standards.
HIMSS inspectors observed clinical staff using the Trust’s electronic patient record system and electronic data and analytics functions, to demonstrate how digital use is embedded throughout clinical practice to improve patient care and to drive service improvement.
Liz Bishop, LHCH Chief Executive, said: “We’re thrilled that LHCH has achieved such a prestigious rating, at Stage 7, with HIMSS. This is testament to the incredible digital vision here at LHCH and the professionalism of all our teams who have embraced new digital ways of working and adopted new technology to enable us to deliver outstanding care for our patients.”
John Rayner, who led the international assessment team, said: “This is a fantastic hospital which has thoroughly embraced the power of technology and innovation to absolutely transform everything that they do. The enthusiasm for this was palpable the minute we walked through the door. Managerial and clinical teams alike are so passionate and proud of the journey that has finally taken them to this point. It is amazing to see such commitment and how this energy has improved patient safety and the overall quality of clinical care.”
Kate Warriner, LHCH Chief Digital and Information Officer, said: “I’m so proud of our digital, operational and clinical teams, and all the incredible work they have done across the Trust to achieve this accreditation. We’ve been on a remarkable digital journey in recent years, and since achieving HIMSS Stage 6 in the middle of the pandemic in 2021, this progress has continued at pace.
“Through the integration of clinical systems, embedding information sharing across care services, and investing in digital infrastructure, cyber security and intelligence-led care, staff have been enabled to deliver even better, safer and more efficient patient care.”
Kate added: “While it is clearly a tremendous achievement to have received EMRAM Stage 7 accreditation, we know there’s even more we can do. As such, we will continue to look for ways to harness digital technologies to further optimise patient care, safety and effectiveness of our services.”
LHCH Medical Director and Chief Clinical Information Officer, Mr Manoj Kuduvalli, said: “A tremendous amount of work has taken place over the last 10-11 years since we first implemented our Trust-wide electronic patient record system.
“In 2013 we successfully moved away from using paper patient records and introduced fully digital ways of documenting patient care and accessing clinical information.
“Therefore, we are absolutely delighted to be formally recognised in such a select group of healthcare centres as a Stage 7 trust.”
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust are winners in the Health Tech Awards 2023
We’re thrilled to report that Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells (MTW) NHS Trust has been announced as the winner in the Health Tech Digital Pathway and Workflow Optimisation Award category in the HTN Tech Awards 2023!
The trust developed a leading-edge Virtual Fracture Clinic (VFC) within Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise™ electronic patient record (EPR). This workflow management solution has saved eight days of admin time per month and is revolutionising data collection. It also helped drive better accessibility and delivered a smoother patient pathway—all while inspiring other trusts and departments.
The VFC itself is a service that expedites access to orthopaedic care for patients attending A&E across MTW, which comprises two hospital sites and a Minor Injury Unit (MIU). The service provides a thorough digital pathway from admission in ED through to inpatient, theatre and outpatient services, such as physiotherapy. The VFC is the first instance of a fully digital pathway for fractures deployed in an EPR, helping streamline the patient pathway while improving their experiences.
Key outcomes:
– Reduced printing costs
– Saved eight days of admin time per month
– Revolutionised data collection and accessibility
– Streamlined the patient pathway
Read the full case study here.
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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17 July 2023: Mark Hutchinson, a Top 100 CIO, has recently been appointed Altera Digital Health’s Vice President of Healthcare Strategy & Transformation, EMEA. The clinical information systems provider is one of the leading providers of electronic patient records in the UK and works with a number of top performing trusts.
Mark has more than 20 years of experience in NHS IT with eight of them at board level, and joins Altera Digital Health after five years as Executive Chief Digital Information Officer at Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust.
During his time in the NHS, he has enabled some of the most impactful and successful digital transformation projects. This includes delivering the UK’s first telemedicine service in 2007 at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and, most recently, deploying an EPR in only five months at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Mark led the Sunrise™ EPR implementation at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust in 2013, which became the most digitally mature trust in the country in 2015 and then achieved Global Digital Exemplar status.
Throughout his career, Mark has championed taking an alternative approach to digital transformation by taking a faster, flexible and more efficient route to EPR deployments with modular approaches, which are often less disruptive and generate faster benefits for both patients and clinicians. His approach ensures a focus on patient care is the first step in successful EPR implementation.
In his new role, Mark intends to guide trusts to take similar approaches that are cost effective and deliver instant benefits to patient care.
“I know how challenging the current landscape is for NHS providers to deliver digital transformation,” Mark said “An EPR supplier duopoly is a real threat, and against this inflexible backdrop, innovation is at risk, as is taxpayer’s money.
“I joined Altera Digital Health because I am passionate about delivering technology that genuinely makes a difference to patients and clinicians. I’m excited by the opportunity to help more NHS organisations accelerate their digital maturity and bring in changes that transform patient care and make life better for frontline staff, without exhausting budgets or taking years to realise benefits.”
The appointment comes as part of Altera Digital Health’s drive to accelerate growth across the UK and ensure NHS trusts are equipped to deliver transformative digital projects quickly, using national or local budgets.
Mark continued, “The traditional model for EPR implementation is not fit for purpose. It’s extremely disruptive, and can be harmful to patients. I’m deeply passionate about championing an alternative platform approach to solutions that provides a fast, flexible and clinically driven roadmap towards digital maturity across integrated care systems and delivers rapid improvements for both patients and clinicians.”
Rachael Fox, Altera Digital Health Executive Vice President, UK & EMEA, said, “We’re delighted to welcome Mark to the Altera Digital Health team. Bringing his extensive digital transformation leadership experience, expertise and passion, Mark will be pivotal in delivering digital transformation projects at pace for many NHS organisations going forward.”
ENDS
Media Contact
Charlotte Tovey, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
charlotte@silver-buck.com
07852462266
About Altera Digital Health
Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT innovator. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform 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 Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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21 June 2023: Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GHFT) has gone live with electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA), as the next step in the trust’s five-year digital transformation journey. The Altera Digital Health solution was introduced as part of the trust’s Sunrise™ electronic patient record (EPR), also provided by Altera Digital Health.
As of February 2023, the system has been fully optimised and the entire prescribing and administration process has been digitised. This is across more than 50 adult inpatient wards over the two hospital sites, two emergency departments and a specialist oncology centre. It is already supporting improvements to patient safety, enhancing clinical workflows and improving patient flow.
With adult inpatient clinical and nursing documentation, observations and order comms already on Sunrise EPR, implementing ePMA was the most important next step in improving patient safety and reducing drug errors.
Driven by digital teams working alongside pharmacy and clinical specialists, integration with existing systems was key.
Israr Baig, Associate Pharmacy Director at GHFT said, “Improving patient safety by reducing errors was central to this go-live. Before ePMA was introduced, a drug may have been dispensed for a patient and sent to a ward, the item may be lost and re-dispensed. Now, there is a clear record of all supplies made to wards, preventing duplication significantly.”
He added, “Sunrise is integrated with EMIS, the Trust’s pharmacy supply interface, which removes the need for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to transcribe between the two systems, reducing errors.”
Doctors and nurses on the wards can also automatically order medicines through Sunrise, so they no longer need to make a physical visit or phone pharmacy to prescribe.
Israr continued, “Each clinician can see where they are in the prescribing process by checking the tracking boards – from admission to discharge, by role and task. With remote access, we can carry out important checks and validations from wherever we are, if needed. And we can run reports to give us essential information on quality and safety, as well as supporting planning.”
As part of ePMA implementation, GHFT was able to move to electronic discharge summaries, meaning that timely communication with GPs has been instantly improved. This has also led to operational improvements to encourage early discharge now that medication discharge information is viewable on EPR.
“ePMA is one of the biggest digital changes we’ve introduced,” said Dr Paul Downie, Chief Clinical Information Officer and Chief Clinical Safety Officer at GHFT. “As well as delivering safety benefits for our patients, it has enabled our operational teams to support early discharge. We know that discharges home are often delayed whilst patients wait for essential medications. Going digital has given us better visibility of who needs what and when – resulting in discharges earlier in the day and better flow through our hospitals. “
Despite having the lowest digital maturity rating for a trust its size less than four years ago, GHFT is now setting its sights on HIMSS Stage 6. This includes having 25% of its medications administered and managed under a fully digital, or closed-loop system, by 2024.
Rachael Fox, Executive Vice President, UK & EMEA, Altera Digital Health said, “It has been a pleasure to work with the team at GHFT, which has gone from strength to strength on its digital journey. We are very pleased that Sunrise has been at the heart of this. Since initially going live with Sunrise in June 2021, the trust has brought about incredible change. We feel this shows that it is possible to quickly and safely deploy technology that is going to have an incredible impact on patient care.”
END
Media contact
Siobhan Fitzsimons, Account Manager, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
siobhan@silver-buck.com
07450909516
About Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a large NHS trust in the South West of England, employing 8,000 staff supporting a population of 635,000. It provides a wide range of acute services, including a regional cancer centre, from its two large general hospitals – Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General; as well as maternity services at Stroud Maternity. Its mission is to: “achieve the best for our patients, their families, our staff and our communities” and to deliver “best care for everyone.”
The Trust’s long-term digital strategy is to reach stage 7 on the HIMSS EMRAM maturity model. It aims to become a digitally advanced hospital providing the kind of high-quality care that patients deserve, and staff aspire to deliver.
About Altera Digital Health
Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT leader. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform 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 using our solutions, we 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 Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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20 June 2023 Rachael Fox has been appointed Executive Vice President for UK, Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Altera Digital Health, a leading electronic patient record (EPR) provider who work with NHS trusts across the region.
Rachael worked within the NHS for over 19 years before joining Altera (previously Allscripts) in 2016. During her time in the NHS, Rachael held various senior leadership roles during which she was responsible for the successful deployment of Sunrise EPR at one NHS trust and assisting with the successful deployment at a neighbouring NHS organisation. At Altera, she was previously Vice President of Client Success and Support responsible for account management, customer satisfaction and support for the company’s UK and International client base.
The appointment comes as part of Altera’s drive to accelerate growth across the UK and EMEA and continuing its exceptional support for NHS trusts and ICSs in their digital transformation.
On taking up her new role, Rachael said: “I’m deeply passionate about improving patient care by enhancing usability of systems and driving digital maturity within the NHS and other healthcare organisations. Before first joining Altera in 2016, I had been an admirer of its approach to affordable and usable clinical systems and of the clinical benefits they bring, and the way in which they improve the lives of both patients and clinicians.
“The ability to deploy transformational EPR projects sustainably and affordably is going to be vital for those trusts needing to rapidly accelerate their digital maturity, to enable them to deal with growing pressures and take advantage of new models of care. It is my goal to ensure Altera continues to provide exceptional service, operational excellence, and innovative solutions to help NHS trusts and ICSs maximise the benefit from their clinical systems.”
In her new role, Rachael is responsible for the leadership of Altera’s UK and EMEA teams and overseeing the continued development of its innovative solutions including Sunrise EPR and the Altera Platform of Health, all of which have made Altera Digital Health a trusted partner for many health organisations.
ENDS
Media Contact
Charlotte Tovey, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
charlotte@silver-buck.com
07852462266
About Altera Digital Health
Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT innovator. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform 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 Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT innovator, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center 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 www.alterahealth.com.
Copyright 2025 Altera Digital Health Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.