UHNM goes live with Bluespier theatres

A fully-integrated electronic theatre management system has gone live across a series of hospitals in the North Midlands.

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust started deploying Bluespier Theatres as its core theatre management system on Monday 8^th October.

The success at the Trust is the culmination of a 9 month project and a complex two-way integration with System C’s Medway, the core EPR software in use across the two sites.

Heidi Poole, Head of Service Development, IM&T, at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, said: “This has been a large scale and professionally orchestrated exercise, with over 600 staff trained and using the software. We are delighted to have officially gone live this week and are now in a position where we can start looking to reap the benefits as an organisation.”

Staff across the Trust will now be able to electronically complete operation notes and clinical assessments, populate recovery charts and manage entire care plans all through the theatre system.

The seamless integration with System C’s Medway EPR means elective and emergency theatre bookings can be scheduled and managed directly from within System C’s Patient Administration System. The wider theatre record can also be accessed directly from within Medway, which allows for end-to-end management of the theatre journey.

Electronic patient tracking will enable the Trust to better monitor, manage and improve their utilisation and theatre efficiency through easily accessible data and reports.

Heidi Poole continued: “We are looking to Bluespier to help us streamline our everyday working in theatres, drastically reduce paper-based processes and ultimately improve theatre care for patients.”

“It is early days, but staff seem to like the system and are finding it more clinically-intuitive.”

Stuart van Rooyen, Managing Director at Bluespier, said: “This has been an excellently executed project thanks to the talent and diligence of the Trust staff, Bluespier and System C representatives.

“We understand the pressures that hospitals are under, and are very proud that our solutions can help improve efficiency and ultimately patient care within high pressure environments.”

As well as the theatre system, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust are also using the Bluespier Whiteboard to visually manage emergency patients, enabling the clinical teams to easily identify, monitor and prioritise by clinical need, treatment targets and other configurable benchmarks.

Phil Windsor, Directorate Manager of Theatres, said: “I’m excited to see the impact this implementation has on our processes, use of paper and overall efficiencies in theatres.”

See the story featured on Digital Health here: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2018/11/industry-news-in-brief-13/