Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us

Future Healthcare Journal

  • FHJ Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About FHJ
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
RCP Journals
Home
  • Log in
  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us
Advanced

Future Healthcare Journal

futurehosp Logo
  • FHJ Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About FHJ
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

Leading organisational change: how we implemented a new electronic solution in a district general hospital

Sean Noronha and Victoria Alner
Download PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7861/futurehosp.6-1-s46
Future Healthc J March 2019
Sean Noronha
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Victoria Alner
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
Loading

Background

The background to this project was a growing district general hospital reliant on an increasingly outdated system of paper notes, drug charts and separate departments with idiosyncratic requesting procedures. Processes were cumbersome, non-auditable and open to systemic error.

The eCare solution would amalgamate these systems into single, auditable patient records, accessible from any trust computer, solving any issues with legibility or accountability. Our challenge was to train an entire hospital of healthcare professionals on eCare prior to ‘go live’, and transcribe all inpatient drug charts on the transition weekend.

Methods

As chief registrar, I was tasked with two specific outcomes:

  1. For 90% of junior doctors to have completed training prior to go-live: this was a collaborative effort between doctors, medical staffing and the transformation teams to ensure doctors could attend training without compromising patient care on the wards. Bespoke training sessions were used to deliver staff-specific needs, while grand rounds and audit half days were used to deliver the strategic vision behind the project.

  2. For 100% of drug charts to be transcribed during the cutover weekend: junior doctors from our existing staff pool were recruited for drug chart transcription at highly competitive locum rates. A bonus was offered to the doctor who transcribed the most drug charts.

Results

We achieved results of 93% of junior doctors completing training prior to the go live date and 100% of drug charts being transcribed. The success of the project could be attributed to junior doctor buy-in, a competitive locum rate for transcription slots and the presence of a chief registrar with dedicated time to drive the project forwards.

Conclusions

The implementation of eCare was a transformational change affecting every healthcare professional in the trust, and we worked tirelessly with both internal and external stakeholders to ensure the smoothest transition possible. The junior doctors were identified as key to the success of the project, and great efforts were made to win over their hearts and minds, focusing on immediate gains such as never rewriting drug charts, ability to prescribe remotely, and not having to look for or decipher notes. With the clinical workforce on board, there is now cautious optimism as the project moves forwards into the next phase.

Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Footnotes

  • ↵*Royal College of Physicians chief registrar

  • © Royal College of Physicians 2019. All rights reserved.
Back to top
Previous articleNext article

Article Tools

Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Leading organisational change: how we implemented a new electronic solution in a district general hospital
Sean Noronha, Victoria Alner
Future Healthc J Mar 2019, 6 (Suppl 1) 46; DOI: 10.7861/futurehosp.6-1-s46

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Leading organisational change: how we implemented a new electronic solution in a district general hospital
Sean Noronha, Victoria Alner
Future Healthc J Mar 2019, 6 (Suppl 1) 46; DOI: 10.7861/futurehosp.6-1-s46
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Background
    • Methods
    • Results
    • Conclusions
    • Conflict of interest statement
    • Footnotes
  • Info & Metrics

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Fracture Liaison Services in England and Wales, inequity of access and quality of care after a fragility fracture
  • The end of weak handover
  • Developing service delivery guidelines on acute medical emergencies: challenges and solutions
Show more Health Services and Policy

Similar Articles

Navigate this Journal

  • Journal Home
  • Current Issue
  • Ahead of Print
  • Archive

Related Links

  • ClinMed - Home
  • FHJ - Home

Other Services

  • Advertising
futurehosp Footer Logo
  • Home
  • Journals
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
HighWire Press, Inc.

Follow Us:

  • Follow HighWire Origins on Twitter
  • Visit HighWire Origins on Facebook

Copyright © 2021 by the Royal College of Physicians