Welcome to this week’s Directors blog, from Adam Thomas, Chief Information Officer.
Sunrise – Taking the next step
This week is a big deal for the Trust as we went live with more Sunrise features. The new Emergency Department module and electronic orders and results management across the Trust was released early on Wednesday morning. This is a significant milestone for the Trust as it brings everything together into one single system improving workflow, supporting patient care and allowing Soarian to slip into retirement.
Sunrise design is led by clinicians and delivers a platform for the Trust to evolve and improve clinical pathways over years to come. By using Sunrise for all or as many clinical records as possible we will maximise its use and drive clinical safety by keeping patient information together in one system.
As with any major change getting to grips with a new system can be challenging. A great deal of planning has been undertaken with operational leads to ensure staff are supported. Departments, wards and teams across the Trust have done a fantastic job of working together to get us safely live. Look out for our floor walkers who are there to advise and help navigate queries.
During this week where we see an immense step forward in our digital strategy, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the individuals that have made outstanding contributions to Sunrise GoLive, working in close collaboration with the Digital Trust team.
Whilst every single member of staff across the Trust has pulled together in a team effort, the first mention must go to our Emergency Department for managing to take a huge system change in their stride. Special thanks to Dr Ash Singal, Rachel Tomkins, Liz Slevin for the huge amount of work in designing, testing and bedding in the system. In addition, over the go-live period numerous members of staff went the extra mile to smooth the transition; Rachel Howells, Kimberley Wills, Corrine O’Callaghan Walker, Dr Simon Malins, Dr Nick Stockdale, Dr Ameer Shah, Belinda Williams and Jean Pegg – thank you.
In recognition of supporting digital transformation, Andrea Grainger and the whole phlebotomy team deserve recognition for the change they have embarked on with Sunrise ePhlebotomy to improve patient safety. The team have done a fantastic job of taking on this task and working to get to grips with this. Well done to the whole team.
The next step in the Digital Trust programme is to launch ePrescribing and eMedicines Administration, which will complete the main functional deployments of the Sunrise system – giving further opportunities to support excellent patient care.
Finances
Thanks to all our staff we have been able to evidence a much-improved financial position during 2018/19. Although we have delivered a deficit of approx. £1m this represents a significant improvement on the previous year and benchmarks positively with our peers.
The national financial situation facing all providers means that we will need to double our efforts to eliminate waste and manage within financial targets if we are to repeat this financial performance during 2019/20. The first month’s information (April) looks favourable but we know this will be more challenging as we move into summer as we still have some significant efficiencies to find.
Performance
Teams across the Trust have been working very hard to make sure we improve our Emergency Access Standard performance and that hard work has paid off as we have seen improvements recently in meeting that standard of how many patients we see, treat, admit or discharge within four hours (target 95%).
Elsewhere in the Trust there is a sustained compliance in Cancer Services targets which is a credit to the ongoing work in these teams. This is good news on both of these performance standards which reflects the care we offer. Thank you and well done to all involved.
Workforce
Becky Cooke has been leading staff engagement, meeting with departments to get their feedback and better understand the outcomes from our recent staff survey results. It is good to hear the positive response from the staff at Health Records when the engagement team visited this week to listen to staff views.
Committed to Excellence
It is that time of year – please get your nominations in for the committed to excellence awards. Our staff awards celebrate exceptional individuals and teams who work directly with patients or in a non-clinical role.Nominate now in the categories of:-
Excellence in improvement practice (formally Business development)
Excellence in patient care
Team Excellence
Unsung Hero – clinical
Unsung Hero – non clinical
Steve Ford volunteer award
Pride
The staff engagement team are attending Birmingham Pride on 25th May 2019 alongside Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Trust. The annual festival for the LGBT community attracts around 75,000 people each year. The event hosts music and dance acts, a funfair, stalls and a parade which we are excited to be taking part in. It would be great to see you there.
For information on the event follow the link: http://www.birminghampride.com/
Smoke Free
The Trust is working towards being completely smoke free sites on 3rd June. There have been a number of briefing sessions held in order to listen to views of staff with the most frequently asked questions and answers available on the hub. There are also details of support available to give up smoking.
Appraisals
Following the theme of staff engagement we are within the staff appraisal window that occurs every year between 1st April and 30th June. It is important that all staff have the opportunity to have an annual appraisal in order that that staff are supported and have the opportunity for constructive feedback from their line manager. Therefore please book your appraisal while the window is open and support your staff.
Thank you and well done to all the staff at Dudley.