Dudley and Black Country partnership go live with Rio

Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust have gone live with Servelec’s Rio Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.

Currently, the neighbouring trusts provide care as separate organisations. But plans are in place to merge the two in 2020, which will strengthen mental health; children, young people and family services; and learning disabilities services across the Black Country. Having Rio in place will create a single view of each patient to improve patient care.

The implementation of the EPR system, initially across children and young people services (CYFS) and learning disabilities services, took around six months.

The system is now available to 600 staff and clinicians across both trusts, allowing the secure and seamless flow of information between them.

Mark Syrett, EPR programme director across both organisations, said: “Servelec has risen to the challenge of providing a single system across both trusts and bringing our patient records together as we align our working practices and processes in this new partnership.

With this improved flow of information between the trusts, patients stand to gain improved access to services and a better treatment experience

“We have already seen staff benefit from no longer having to dig through paper records and spend hours searching through legacy systems.

“With this improved flow of information between the trusts, patients stand to gain improved access to services and a better treatment experience.

Neil Laycock, managing director of Servelec Healthcare, added: “We’re very pleased to work with the two trusts to provide our Rio EPR solution as their partnership grows and progresses.

“Their vision to improve integrated care between the trusts aligns with our own aspirations to transform how healthcare data is shared.

“As a technology provider, we advocate openness so that patients can reap the benefits of a joined-up approach to their care, and we develop our solutions with patients at their centre, so we can help clinicians in the delivery of the best-possible course of treatment.

“As a technology provider, we advocate openness so that patients can reap the benefits of a joined-up approach to their care, and we develop our solutions with patients at their centre, so we can help clinicians in the delivery of the best-possible course of treatment

“We look forward to supporting both organisations on their journey, as they make full use of Rio.”

Phase two of the implementation, which is expected to be completed by next spring, will see the system rolled out to a further 2,000 users across older adult and child and adolescent mental health services (CAHMS) at both trusts.

Rio supports the vision of every patient having one, fully-integrated, record to enable the very-best and most-efficient healthcare.

It operates across mental health, child health, and community care settings and manages both administrative and clinical processes.