Alder Hey opts for Meditech’s ‘next-gen’ Expanse cloud EPR

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has moved forward with what has been labelled “a key component” of its digital futures strategy after signing for Meditech’s new, cloud-based Expanse electronic patient record (EPR).

The move to Expanse is an effort by global digital exemplar (GDE) trust Alder Hey to elevate it to HIMSS Stage 7 – the status given to trusts that demonstrate organisation-wide digitisation.

The EPR is due to go live in Autumn 2020.

Meditech Expanse offers a complete view of the patient across care settings, and Alder Hey will benefit from enhanced workflows, interoperability, and analytics.

Kate Warriner, chief digital and information officer (CDIO) at Alder Hey, said: “We are committed to providing our patients, and their families, with exceptional care. Digital technology can enhance everything we do and we are looking forward to harnessing the power of Expanse to transform the way we work and provide patients with a new level of care.”

Alder Hey’s digital futures strategy is a five-year plan designed to provide the best possible digital and technology services to support, enable, and drive clinical excellence, digital quality improvement, outcomes and patient safety.

Recognised by NHS England as a GDE, the trust been identified for delivering high-quality care through its use of digital technology and informatics, both within and beyond its organisational boundary.

Charlotte Jackson, CEO of Meditech UK, said: “Alder Hey is a trailblazer in transforming patient care with technology and innovation.

“We look forward to building on our longstanding relationship and providing the organisation with the technology and tools that will enable it to move forward and achieve its transformative goals.”

Alder Hey cares for over 330,000 children, young people and their families every year, and the trust has introduced a range of digital innovations aimed at supporting young patients through their treatment.

Its Alder Play app, for example, uses gaming and augmented reality to distract patients from procedures and help them understand their hospital visit.

The trust is also experimenting with Microsoft’s mixed reality HoloLens technology, which is being used in operating theatres to improve planning and collaboration around surgical procedures.