Heartbeat July 2020

The patient’s Unity – coming to a
smartphone near you
The days of patients frantically trying
to find their paper based test results,
appointment dates and clinical advice
will soon be over as we move Unity –
our electronic patient record on to its
next stage and begin offering a brand
new patient portal.
Unity launched in September 2019 and
moved our Trust forward in leaps and
bounds in terms of moving all of our
patient records away from the confusing
assortment of third party systems and on to
one single unified record which we refer to
as Unity.
However in the months following our move
to Unity, it quickly became evident that
although clinical colleagues had taken a big
digital step forwards, our patients had not
– until now.
In the coming months, a brand new patient
portal will be rolling out across our Trust
which will transform how patients access
their own clinical records and interact with
their care teams. A range of documents
and test results will be available for patients
to view. They will also have the ability to
communicate with their care team and can
complete pre and post appointment forms
and questionnaires via secure messaging.
Unity for patients
All this can be done at any time using any
device, whether it be a laptop, desktop or
mobile phone.
Leading on the rollout of the new patient
portal Martin Chadderton said: “We have
a legal obligation to allow patients to see
their own records but this isn’t the only
reason why we’re pushing forward with this.
We know that patients who are kept up
to date with their own care plans are more
able, knowledgeable and prepared when
they need help. These systems empower
patients to truly take control of managing
their health, to engage with their care teams
and, at the click of a button, be able to see
their latest information all in one place. The
Unity optimisation begins to
take shape
new system will enable patients to see
their consultation letters, test results and
complete pre and post appointment forms
and questionnaires – potentially saving
lots of in-clinic time and allowing for a
more focused consultation.”
The new system will begin rolling out
in October 2020 and will make its way
across our Trust in a phased approach
with colleagues in surgery and primary
care, community and therapies being the
first to take advantage of the system.
If you would like to find out
more about the new system,
contact Joe Cridge on email:
joseph.cridge@nhs.net.
Unity launched in September to great
fanfare, a major leap in our workflow
supporting colleagues to better
manage patient records – all from the
comfort of one single system. Since the
launch, there has been a lot of talk of
‘optimisation’, however this month the
talk begins to turn in to actions as we
launch two significant projects to move
Unity in to the next phase.
Unity has successfully been supporting our
Trust since September 2019, with outages
few and far between, behind the scenes
our supplier ‘Cerner’ have been hard at
work improving the system to offer better
performance, improved user interfaces
and a better structure supporting future
development. We are now working to
upgrade our system at overnight on the 26
August to take advantage of the improved
code.
Sharing his thoughts on the upgrade, Chief
Clinical Information Officer and Consultant
Ophthalmologist, Ash Sharma said,
“Everything that is changing is under the
hood, none of the processes or practices you
have learnt will be changing, and the system
itself at first glance will look almost completely
the same. However, much of the underlying
code that manages Unity will be updated
to take advantage of improved processes
delivering a much slicker, stable and most
importantly safer experience for patients and
staff.”
The upgrade will take place overnight and
will be one of the few updates that require
elements of Unity to be taken offline for a
short period. Details of the affected systems
and schedule of upgrade will be shared
through staff communications.
Also this month, we see the relaunch of the
Unity Go Paper-less project which is focussed
on moving the remaining clinical forms and
records which are still recorded on paper
over to a digital solution. Colleagues are
being encouraged to come forward and
share their processes and forms with their
group representatives. With the aim of
declaring any remaining paper clinical
documents by Monday 10 August.
To find out more about the Unity Go
Paper-less project, contact Essie Li via
Essie.li@nhs.net.
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