Evaluation of IT modernisation in the NHS - NETSCC

Report to SDO for NCRS ProjectIntroduction• Automated and secure audit trail for decisions, using electronicfingerprints/signatures.• More accurate, and more readily available, information for planning andperformance monitoring purposes locally; more accurate data returns fornational purposes achieved more efficiently.Our original aim was to evaluate the implementation of electronic patient records(EPRs) in four main areas: processes; consequences, both intended andunintended; the associated costs and savings of the processes andconsequences; lessons for future implementation. We described two specificobjectives:(a) To evaluate the consequences and costs/savings of implementing EPRs in arange of secondary acute Trusts;(b) To evaluate the processes and impact of implementing EPRs on theorganisation, all levels of staff and patients.Information for Health required all acute Trusts to implement EPRs. 1At the timeof finalising the project in 2003, the target date for achieving full implementationwas rescheduled to December 2007, 2 with the Government acknowledging thatEPRs had “not yet been adopted on a national scale”. At the time, we saw a clearopportunity for the study to identify important lessons for implementation. EPRswere also being implemented in “different ways” across acute Trusts. SomeTrusts had the advantage of ‘new build’ projects, which allowed the ‘hardware’and ‘software’ infrastructure for EPRs to be installed in an optimal fashion. OtherTrusts were establishing EPR functionality by modifying existing IT systems.1.2. Changes to the conception of the projectIn November 2003, the SDO agreed that changes to the project protocol wererequired. These changes were needed because the government’s original planfor implementing electronic patient records (EPRs) in the NHS (on which ourapplication and original objectives were based) 1,2 had been abandoned during theperiod between submission of the application and contracting of the project.2