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Trust-wide Unity implementation update – more than half the areas at City are now live on Unity

September 21, 2019

We are pleased to confirm that Unity is now live in more than half our ward and other areas across City Hospital – with 12 wards complete (ED, AMU1, AMU2, D5, D7, D11, D17, M1, NNU, EGAU, Critical Care and AMAA). We are currently on track to complete City go-live today.

Thank you to all staff in these areas for your patience and hard work. D5 was the first ward to go live, and pictured bottom left are Stephanie Coates, Laura Taylor and Hannah Brookes in their green Unity t-shirts.

How to get support
Don’t worry if you get stuck or aren’t sure what to do – plenty of help is at hand.

  • If you cannot log in to Unity then call the informatics service desk on ext. 4050. We presently have just 45 open Unity calls which are unresolved.
  • If you have any other issue with Unity, please speak to a colleague wearing a green Unity t-shirt in the first instance. If your query requires urgent escalation, they can do this for you

For the next fortnight, as well as digital champions and super users, there will be floorwalkers who can help resolve any issues. If you would like the support of a super user or floorwalker, please call ext. 4050 to log a request and the team will allocate appropriate resources to help.

If you’ve forgotten how to do a particular task in Unity, there are pocket books you can refer to. These simple guides will take you through the process step by step. There are also standard operating procedures and quick references guides on Connect.

For more information about going live with Unity please visit the all about go-live section on Connect or email swbh.unity.queries@nhs.net.

What you need to know – common issues
A few common issues have been picked up so far. Please take note of the following:

  • In order to work with Unity, the Abbott Blood Glucose Analysers require docking to pick up new settings. Please ensure all Abbott Blood Glucose Analysers have been docked today
  • Results for tests such as radiology and pathology returned after 16 September will be logged within Unity. However, if results for tests were returned before 16 September, you will find these in CDA/CSS
  • Areas should only have BCP active for ordering radiology as ICM is currently offline. No other BCP should be enacted without escalating to site leads.

How to use Tap and Go
Tap and Go is a new system to help colleagues log in to Trust computers with a simple tap of a smartcard.

When you have enrolled, all you need to do to log in to a Tap and Go computer is to tap your smartcard on the reader and enter your pin.

The video below will guide you through the login process.

If you have issues with enrolling or logging in using Tap and Go you can continue to login manually by pressing the ‘Esc’ button on your keyboard and entering your network login details manually.

To be clear, Tap and Go may be conflicting with certain smart card rooted IT applications (including ORMIS and ED). This was tested and worked before go-live. We are confident we can resolve it, so using the workaround is a temporary measure – sorry.

For all other IT issues, please contact the IT Service Desk on ext. 4050.

A view from colleagues – AMU1
AMU1 was one of the first areas to go live with Unity at 5am. Ward clerks Victoria O’Sullivan and Emma Ward, pictured below, shared their experiences.

“It’s been fine,” said Victoria. “It hasn’t been as busy as normal so it’s enabled us to get on and work out the system. We’ve had help from the Unity team who’ve been down as well. We’ve had good support from them.”

“I think now that we’ve got on and started using Unity it’s not as scary as we thought it would be,” added Emma. “We’ve only had to phone and then a floorwalker’s come to help. We had someone with us going through some of the steps this morning.”

Shout-out competition
The Unity go-live fortnight will be a demanding time for everyone in the Trust and it will be important to work together. If you notice anyone going the extra mile to help their colleagues with Unity please take the time to submit a shout-out via Connect.

Each day during the two weeks of go-live there will be a prize of £20 worth of Love to Shop vouchers on offer for the best shout-out. The prize will be split equally between the person who submitted the shout-out and the person who received it.

Share your Unity stories
The communications team will be out and about during the Unity go-live fortnight, collecting pictures and videos from different departments, but if you think there’s something that we’ve missed then please get in touch. Whether it’s an example of good team work, supportive colleagues, or anything else of interest, just let us know.

Email swbh.comms@nhs.net with any stories you think we should cover and be sure to include as much information as possible.

The Oracle system is back online
The Oracle system is now back up after undergoing a scheduled quarterly routine maintenance. Finance and procurement would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. The team are not expecting any issues as a result of the upgrade that will impact on the Trust, and will be monitoring the system to ensure it is working as expected.