#Unity is coming…
December 19, 2018
By Dominic LeGros, Informatics Nurse
Next year, our organisation will experience the biggest transformation in the Trust’s history – Unity.
Unity is our new electronic patient record (EPR) and will see a dramatic reduction in the amount of paper we use in our day to day activities whilst continuing to provide excellent care to our patients.
The change will be massive, instead of folders perched on the foot of a patient’s bed, we will be documenting directly on a computer. This requires a fundamental change in our culture from using paper to completing electronic documentation and assessments. Note trolleys will become a thing of the past.
The benefits of EPR systems are widely known around the world, and for this journey we have partnered with a global company with expertise in electronic patient records; Cerner. The system we know as Unity is already successfully used in 23 other NHS Trusts and over 67,000 hospitals worldwide, so we know it works and that it is safe.
Change is never easy, and a change of this magnitude will challenge us all; but if we all work together we will see Unity become the core around which we deliver high-quality care to all of our patients across the Trust.
Unity will work with us to improve patient safety by replacing illegible paper records, reducing the risk of error when prescribing and administering medications, allowing access to the drug chart at all times preventing delays due to a paper chart being in pharmacy (or elsewhere) and improving detection of potential sepsis thanks to a system of alerts that will guide all colleagues to take appropriate action.
Life as we know it won’t be the same; we will all need to brush up on basic computer skills (using a mouse and keyboard) as well as spending more time taking mobile computers for walks around the ward!
Over the coming weeks I will be exploring each of these themes, and more, in greater detail.
#hellomynameis… Dom, and I am one of your informatics nurses.
#Unity – releasing time to care