HEARTBEAT February 2019

Colleagues united in Unity
Our recent Unity engagement events
gave colleagues much reassurance
about our new electronic patient
record.
We’ve received encouraging feedback with
71 per cent of attendees agreeing learning
points were well made, 93 per cent of
attendees found the content relevant and
97 per cent of attendees would recommend
the event to fellow colleagues.
The two engagement events took place
at Sandwell’s Education Centre in January
with the aim of giving colleagues more
information about the ‘pain and gain’ of
implementing an electronic patient record.
The engagement sessions were kicked
off by Roger Stedman, Consultant
Anaesthetics and Critical Care Medicine
who is certain that Unity will aid drug
prescription. He said: “When Unity goes
live our prescribing of drugs will be done
in an entirely electronic fashion. We know
that incomplete prescriptions will fall from
approximately 62 per cent to 0 per cent,
inappropriate doses will fall to almost 0 per
cent, legibility and signing prescriptions will
rise to 100 per cent and the recording of
allergies will rise to 100 per cent.”
Leong Lee, Clinical Safety Officer
and Consultant Cardiologist echoes
these thoughts and said: “Unity will
make things more consistent, it will
improve communication between
different members of staff and
it will improve clarity. No longer
will you have to look at a bit of
writing in the medical notes and
wonder what the words say because
of illegibility. You won’t have to
look at drug charts and wonder
about prescriptions because of the
handwriting or wonder who has
actually prescribed it.”
Attendees heard from Dr Alistair Morris
(Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust and Calderdale and
Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust) and
Helen Beck, Executive Chief Operating
Officer (West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust),
who talked about how the implementation
of their own electronic patient records has
benefitted their organisations.
Colleagues were encouraged by the speakers at the pain and gain event
Both covered initial teething problems and
how it took a short period of time for staff
to learn how to use the system. However,
once they became comfortable with it,
the majority of them went on to become
efficient users. In fact the majority of staff
in both organisations have said they would
not go back to using a paper based system.
Colleagues also had the opportunity to
see Unity in action as they took a patient
on their Unity journey through their care
pathway. There was also a chance to quiz
senior clinical and operational leaders on
how Unity will change the way we perform
our daily duties.
Presenters from our Unity Pain and Gain event
Here’s what colleagues
had to say about
the event
“At first I thought ‘oh no
another IT system’ but I now
understand the ways and
wherefores. I envisage problems
with some colleagues coming
to terms with this but if we
adopt the listening and helping
strategy they will come round.
Bring on go-live.”
“Much more reassuring to hear
from other Trusts who have
gone live. My concern is that
some things they raise, we don’t
seem to have learned from e.g.
need for training that is not
in silos, need for more devices
etc.”
“Very informative, glad I came!
Really useful to hear from those
that have lived and breathed
the journey, I don’t feel as
scared for go-live now.”
“Good to see how other
trusts kept the staff engaged.
Relieved some anxiety how the
system takes a long period of
time to settle in. Ward staff
would benefit from attending.”
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