Unity FAQ

• We currently have multiple systems that do not talk to each other resulting in users having to access multiple systems which do not support workflows. This leads to duplication,   inconsistency of data, and inefficient use of clinician’s time.
• The contracts for the systems provided under that Connecting for Health project have expired so we have the opportunity to review whether to create new contracts or replace the systems – generally we chose to replace.
• The MMH project is dependent on paperless processes e.g. there is no medical records storage.
• The Trust 2020 Vision requires information to be accessible across acute and community locations and for patient information to be shared with other health professionals e.g. community services and GPs – the new EPR provides the technology capability to do this.

• Order requesting, results reporting, and results acknowledgement
• Clinical documents, assessments, observations, Noting, etc
• Emergency Department functions
• Theatre scheduling, management, and supply chain functions
• Prescribing and medicines administration
• Bed management and other Patient Flow functions
• Critical care, including integration of medical devices (pilot)
• Reporting
• Health Information Exchange/Clinical Portal
• Patient Portal (Implementation date TBC)

Unity will provide a standard build of the solution for our Trust based on experience gained from previous NHS and other implementations. It is expected that this will support the majority of Trust clinical workflows, requiring some minor localisation only. The project is not expected to deliver bespoke workflows except where they have already been agreed and included in our contract.

• Community access to Unity

• iCM – Our current clinical system providing Orders and Results, primarily for Pathology, Imaging, and TTOs.
• Ormis – Theatre Scheduling system (in stage 2)
• eBMS – Electronic Bed Management System
• CDA – All clinical functions will be replaced by the new EPR but the data will be preserved to create a historic data archive which will be viewable by “clicking out” from the new EPR whilst retaining the context of the patient.
• Patient First – Current Emergency Departmental system.
• Vital PAC – Used for observations
• Windip – Electronic Referral System
• Patient Knows Best – this will be replaced by a new patient Portal sometime after the initial EPR implementation.

• iPM  (Lorenzo) – Patient Administration System
• SystmOne – Community PAS system.
• BadgerNet – Maternity (not interfaced with EPR)- TBC
• BadgerNet – Neonatal (not interfaced with EPR)
• eFilm/Pacs – Radiology Image Viewer
• CRIS – Radiology Booking and Reporting System (Interfaced with EPR)
• Telepath – Pathology Booking and Reporting System (interfaced with EPR)
• Winscribe – Letter Dictation and Speech recognition
• Medisoft – Ophthalmology Clinical System (not interfaced with EPR)
• JAC – Pharmacy system
• NHS Mail – Email
• YCC – Your Care Connected portal – Functionality is currently accessible via the patient’s CDA record but will be accessed via EPR/HIE.
• Somerset Cancer Registry – Cancer Services database and MDT functionality

Unity will reduce the amount of paper we need in our Trust. Some will inevitably remain.

• All patient demographics on iPM/Lorenzo
• All current and future patient activity
• ED attendances
• Minimal clinical information e.g. a few key alerts

All other data is already in the CDA so will not be migrated but will be developed into a historic read only data warehouse accessible from the EPR by “clicking out” whilst retaining to context of the patient.

In the event of an outage we will have to resort to paper forms and template proforma. Robust operational Business Continuity Plans will be developed prior to going live with Unity.