North East London NHS Foundation Trust goes live with Imprivata

North East London NHS Foundation Trust has deployed Imprivata’s secure sign-on software in a bid to improve patient safety and care.

The IT security firm’s OneSign Single Sign-On software allows medical staff to access information by using their employee smart cards.

The increasing number of passwords being used at the trust caused concern after half of staff admitted to having some form of password memory aid that was either visible or easily accessible.

The trust said there has been a positive response since the solution was deployed to more than 8,000 members of staff, across 150 sites.

David Haymes, project manager at North East London NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Once people saw how easy it was to access applications using Imprivata OneSign, we had little resistance.

“The impact was almost immediate; staff were no longer battling password fatigue but getting on with their day to day jobs without technology barriers. In feedback surveys, 81 percent of staff said the solution had made access to applications quicker and easier.

“This was a smoother transition than we had hoped.”

Following the feedback, the trust is now planning to deploy Imprivata’s Spine Combined Workflow which will deliver the fast and secure access to NHS Spine-enabled applications at the point of care.

Sean Kelly, chief medical officer at Imprivata, said: “North East London NHS Foundation Trust wanted to explore ways to use technology to reduce risk, improve efficiency, and deliver the highest quality patient care.

“The trust has succeeded in achieving this ambition, and with the introduction of Imprivata Spine Combined Workflow, will soon be taking another step along the road to their digital transformation journey.”

North East London is not the only trust to introduce Imprivata’s solution.

In September 2018, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust deployed three products to speed up access to medical devices and digitise the recording of patient signs within its busy renal unit.