Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) is preparing for the long-awaited go live of its new £450 million Epic electronic patient record (EPR) on Thursday 5 October.
The trust will launch the EPR to “bring together hundreds of different systems” from its hospitals and community services, allowing information to be stored in one secure place.
To ensure a smoother transition, the trust has shared some changes over the coming days and weeks, covering in-person appointments, video appointments, blood tests, maternity, reconfirming your preferences, text message reminders and receiving texts from different numbers.
The changes include “changing the system for video appointments from Attend Anywhere to Microsoft Teams” and using “MyChart to replace the current app, BadgerNet”.
As part of the EPR go live, GSTT have announced the launch of a new patient app called MyChart.
As part of our new electronic health record system, Epic, we’re launching a new patient app called MyChart.
You’ll be able to access your health records including test results and appointment letters.
Find out more: https://t.co/4zngl9rnZ8#ReadyForEpic #TeamGSTT pic.twitter.com/47W32c6MwR
— Guy’s and St Thomas’ (@GSTTnhs) October 2, 2023
The new app and online service makes accessing a patient health record easier and can be used on mobile, tablet or computer.
MyChart will allow patients to find test results and letters in one place, get more time in appointments by telling clinicians what they need to know beforehand, save time travelling by having a video appointment and keep medical information up to date, plus plenty more.
The go live of the new Epic EPR has been a long time coming for GSTT, having signed a deal with the US supplier back in November 2020. In March, the launch was delayed to allow more time for the system to be implemented safely.
A spokesperson for the trust said at the time: “Evidence from elsewhere is very clear that data quality will be absolutely critical to a smooth go-live.
“Having started the process of data migration from our legacy IT systems to Epic, it has become clear that we need to do more work to ensure we can launch Epic safely, and with minimum disruption to the services we provide.
“This will also provide extra time to complete the important technical readiness work that is currently underway.”