Surrey and Sussex Healthcare
NHS Trust
Information Technology Strategy
2014/15 to 2019/20
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust-IT Strategy
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Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust-IT Strategy
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Contents
Page
1.
Foreword
4
2.
Introduction
4
3.
Organisational Tenets
5
4.
IT Strategy and Objectives
8
5.
Where Are We Now?
10
6.
Detailed IT Plan
21
7.
Strategy Evaluation
25
8.
IT Strategy Implementation
26
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1. Foreword
This Information Technology (IT) Strategy has been developed by Surrey and
Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (the Trust / SaSH) in order to expedite a disciplined
yet agile approach to the development and management of the Trust’s Information
Technology resources over the next five years.
The strategy references the Trust’s clinical plans for service delivery, as set out in
the Trust’s Clinical Strategy which provides the context for the journey the Trust is
taking to secure its future as a foundation trust. The IT Strategy is aligned with the
strategic plans for other divisions within the Trust, including Estates and Workforce
and is based on the premise of ensuring clinical and financial sustainability.
At the time of preparing this strategy, the healthcare economy and landscape are
subject to the impact of continuing, major legislative, organisational and policy
changes. There is consensus across the system that change is both necessary and
inevitable; the way forward, however, is not prescribed. Financial pressures are
juxtaposed with continuously increasing levels of clinical activity and whilst flexibility
is inherent, a five-year strategy set out in this context must be taken and read as
reflecting the Trust’s current expectations of the period ahead.
The strategy will be revisited, reviewed and revised as the variables and dynamics
impacting the healthcare system evolve and are developed - and as the SaSH
Clinical Strategy progresses.
2. Introduction
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust provides a comprehensive range of
emergency and non-emergency services primarily for the residents of east Surrey,
north-east West Sussex and south Croydon, covering the major towns of Crawley,
Horsham, Reigate and Redhill. Elective and non-elective services including major
and minor Accident and Emergency are delivered from the Trust’s own site at East
Surrey Hospital in Redhill, which is a Trauma Unit and is the designated hospital for
Gatwick Airport and parts of the M25 and M23.
A range of outpatient and diagnostic services are provided at Crawley, Caterham
Dene and Horsham Hospitals as well as Oxted Health Centre.
East Surrey Hospital sits at the heart of a local community of over half a million
people and employs around 3,500 staff.
This IT Strategy has been developed by the Information Technology Team, in
collaboration with a broad range of colleagues including the Clinical Health
Informatics Group, Executive Team and Board.
3. Organisational Tenets
Over recent years, SaSH has worked to develop a culture that supports consistent
improvement, resourcefulness and efficiency in clinical and non-clinical functions.
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Progress has been evidenced and recognised in many areas; recent examples
include:
 CQC Hospital Intelligent Monitoring analysis which placed the Trust in the
highest banding for offering safe, effective, high quality care
 Friends and Family Test combined scores which reported SaSH as having the
best DGH score in its region.
The following SaSH Vision Statement, Strategic Objectives and Values provide
direction and stimulus for the Trust as well as offering a reflection of the character
and aspirations of the Trust leadership and its staff.
Aligned with its geographical and operational positioning, the Trust approach is
summarised in its Vision Statement which is to deliver:
‘Safe, High Quality Healthcare which puts our Community First’
This Vision is enshrined in five Trust Strategic Objectives. They are:
Safe – To deliver excellent quality of services in the top 20% against our
peers by ensuring that:
o We consistently meet national patient safety standards in all specialties
and across divisions
o The outcome of Chief Inspector of Hospitals inspection to be rated as
“good” or better
o We avoid preventable harm
o We are open and transparent

Effective – To deliver clinically and sustainable services within the local
health economy by ensuring that:
o Achieve the best possible clinical outcomes for our patients
o Deliver services differently to meet the needs of patients, the local
health economy and the Trust

Caring – To ensure patients are cared for and feel cared about by
ensuring that:
o We deliver high quality care around the individual needs of each
patient
o We treat patients and their families with dignity, respect and
compassion
o Listen to patients and their families

Responsive to people’s needs – To become the secondary care provider
and employer of choice for the populations of Surrey & Sussex by
ensuring that:
o We deliver access standards
o We use feedback to shape and improve the services patients receive
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o Deliver local services as appropriate at East Surrey Hospital, other
Trust sites and in the community
o Value staff

To be an organisation that is Well led, ensuring that:
o We are an organisation that is clinically led and managerially enabled
o Have appropriately qualified and competent staff always working to the
highest stands of professionalism and ethics
o We are a well governed organisation working in partnership with others
o We will have visible leadership team who are engaged and play a
valuable part in the local health and social care system to ensure the
development and delivery of safe and sustainable services
Underpinning achievement of these objectives are the Trust’s Values:
These tenets are further developed to describe the basis of the Clinical Strategy
(which in turn informs the IT Strategy) as follows:

Our patients deserve the best possible care and we intend to deliver good clinical
and quality outcomes by further improving patient safety, patient experience and
clinical effectiveness.

We will provide a broad range of high quality, integrated district general hospital
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services that allow us to be a clinically and financially sustainable organisation
and to especially work with other expert providers to bring tertiary services and
expertise locally to our patients.

We recognise that a good reputation is key to the delivery of our services, and we
aim, therefore, to meet all local and national expectations which include meeting
the needs of our patients and our commissioners. We are committed to
academic training, research and innovation and aim to be both the provider and
employer of choice.

We understand that we cannot deliver our services in isolation and it is, therefore,
imperative that we work in partnership with our NHS and commercial partners to
deliver appropriate services and models of care, which include utilising clinical
networks. Partnership means working with others across the whole health
economy, both providers and commissioners, working to the same agenda of
delivering high quality, safe and affordable care.

So that we remain clinically and financially sustainable, we are working hard to
improve our productivity by adopting better ways of working. We recognise the
role that technology has to play in doing this. We also believe that it is vital to use
intelligent information and benchmark our performance. By being sufficiently
informed with the right information, we can make better decisions about
improving and sustaining our performance.
The Trust’s Clinical Strategy drives and shapes the provision of services by SaSH
and therefore sets the broad direction that each of the clinical divisions will follow.
This in turn informs strategies for the clinical support services, including IT, to ensure
their clear alignment with the overall Trust vision and objectives.
It should be noted that strategic planning is the starting point for the Trust’s rolling
five year business planning process which will develop and test the detailed plans of
the individual clinical divisions and services. These, based on robust activity capacity
and financial planning, form the core of the Integrated Business Plan.
National IT context
At a national level IM&T strategy has been dominated over the past seven years by
the contractual framework established within NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) and
delivered through the Southern Programme for IT (SPfIT). CfH procured Electronic
Patient Record and PACS systems centrally with each health economy being
responsible for implementation. However as the model has failed to deliver its
expected results it has changed to provide more choice at a Trust level and less of a
one size fits all approach.
The new central mandate and aspiration is now focussed on providers having to
deliver an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) which supports the “clinical 5”.
The “clinical 5” is defined as :
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
A Patient Administration System (PAS) with integration to other systems and sophisticated reporting

Order Communications and Diagnostics Reporting (including all pathology and radiology tests and tests ordered in primary care)

Discharge Letters with coding (discharge summaries, clinic and Accident and Emergency letters)

Scheduling (for beds, tests, theatres etc)

E-Prescribing (including ‘To Take Out’ medicines).
In addition there is also a strong focus on Patients having more control over their
own records. The detail of patient’s access has yet to be fully defined but this is likely
in the first instance to be more focussed on access to the patient‘s longitudinal
record held within primary care.
4. IT Strategy and Objectives
The Trust’s IT objectives are driven substantially by the Trust’s Clinical Strategy and
the need to develop and meet the “clinical 5” requirement. As such we have
developed the following overarching vision for IT within the Trust :
IT Vision
To provide an integrated Electronic Patient Record (EPR) which provides clinical and
administrative staff with appropriate information wherever and whenever they need
it.
Key Elements of the IT Strategy
The IT Strategy focuses on the following six themes:
1. Infrastructure – to ensure that the Trust is served by an infrastructure that
supports the needs of the organisation and its users.
2. Electronic Patient Record – To develop an EPR that meets and exceeds the
clinical 5 requirements
3. Clinical applications that sit outside of the EPR – In addition to the clinical 5
various departmental applications will need to be in place to support a specific need
or requirement.
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4. Supporting administrative functions – to ensure that the Trusts administrative
processes are fully supported by appropriate IT. This includes areas such as HR,
Finance and Procurement.
5. Patient Facing Systems – system which are used directly by patients, either for
largely administrative purposes – e.g. outpatient bookings, or as part of enhancing
patient experience.
6. Governance – to ensure that the proper structure and processes are in place to
allow the strategy to be implemented.
5. Where Are We Now?
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust provides services prinicipally from its own
site at East Surrey Hospital. In addition various services are provided from a number
of other locations where the Trust leases space. These include Crawley Hospital,
Horsham Hospital and Caterham Dene Hospital. All of the Trust’s IT systems are
available throughout all locations where it provides services and the Trust maintains
its own infrastructure at each of these sites. This provides a sifgnificant overhead
cost on top of running services at East Surrey Hospital.
The first major computerisation of the Trust occurred in 1986 with the implementation
of the British Medical Data Systems (BMDS) Patient Administartion System (PAS).
This provided a PAS that significantly enhanced the Trust’s ability to manage its
operational resources such as outpatient clinics, inpatient beds and the A&E
department. It also provided the Trust with sginificant management information on
areas such as waiting times and bed utilisation. The implementation was part of a
South West Thames Regional Health Authority project that included all 14 acute
hospitals in the region at that time.
Following the merger with Crawley and Horsham in 1998 the Trust standardised on
the McKesson Star PAS across all its sites.
When the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) was introduced across the NHS in
2005 the Trust was identified as one of the early adopters of the Care Records
Service (CRS). This was essentially a replacement for PAS systems and the Trust
went live in April 2007 with the Cerner Millenium System. This change was at a
time of significant organisational upheaval and it took two years for the system to
become properly embedded within the Trust. Since that time the contract has
moved from Fujitsu to BT and a major software upgrade has taken place and now
the system is well embedded and used within the Trust.
As part of NPfIT the Trust also went live in 2008 with its Picture Archving and
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Communication (PACs) system. PACs is essentially a digital x-ray system and has
brought significant benefits in terms of ease of access to images and usability
thereof.
The national PACs contract expired in 2013 and the EPR contract ends in 2015.
These two elements form a significant part of this IT strategy.
5.1 Current Systems
Using the headings defined above the following provides an overview of current
systems used iwthin the Trust.
5.1.1 Infrastructure
Trust Networks
The Trust’s IT infrastructure supports c. 2,200 devices across all the sites that the
Trust provides services. This includes both East Surrey Hospital as well as being
responsible for local area networks and server infrastructure at leased sites at
Crawley Hospital, Horsham Hospital and Caterham Dene Hospital. Staff are also
supported at Oxted Health Centre and Caterham Valley Medical Practice (Eothan
House). 85% of the devices are at East Surrey with the remaining predominantly
being at Crawley.
Each primary site is linked using the local healthcare high speed Surrey Community
of Interest Network (COIN). The secondary sites are linked via the national network
(N3) to the COIN.
The majority of the 2,200 devices are managed using a centralised management
tool. The LANs are connected together by digital switches.
The primary datacentre at East Surrey Hospital is in the process of being
modernised, providing enterprise level storage, capacity and resilience. The
development will also help support improved Disaster Recovery.
Mobile working is provided at East Surrey Hospital by an enterprise quality WiFi
network. It also delivers WiFi Internet access to Patients and visitors. Some Inpatients have the benefit of also using a Patient Entertainment System at their
bedside, delivering Radio, Television, Telephone and Internet browsing services.
Remote access for mobile workers is provided in part by either a laptop with secure
connection from the Internet, or by Smart devices using a secure email application.
Surrey Community of Interest Network (COIN)
Fast and effective data communication is a key requirement for the Trust and high
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speed network links are provided under a collaborative contract with several partner
NHS organisations for our Wide Area Network (WAN) solution: the Surrey
Community of Interest Network (Surrey COIN).
5.1.2 Electronic Patient Record (EPR)
Cerner Millennium
The Trust’s current EPR is Cerner Millennium. This went live at the Trust in 2007.
At that time the system was provided by Fujitsu as part of the National Programme
for IT (NPfIT). In 2009 the contract changed to BT and subsequently the Trust
moved data centres and had a major upgrade in 2010.
The system provies the current core functionality :
Core
LC1e
System
Spine compliant version of Cerner Millennium;
Core components include:- In-patients, Out-patients, Waiting Lists,
Choose & Book, "HIM Chart Coding" (Clinical coding), "PM-Office"
(Admin user interface), Powerchart (Clinical user interface), Referral
to treatment (18 ww) status tracking, patient & GP correspondence.
Firstnet
Surginet
Order
Comms
RADnet
PACS
P2
Sentinel
Paperclip
A&E module
Theatre module
Electronic ordering & message management of Pathology &
Radiology orders & results
Radiology module
Picture archiving (aka Image storage & retrieval)
Audit tools
(aka MMF or CAMM) - document storage facility to import external
documents to the patient's clinical record.
mpages
clinical dashboard capability
Reporting includes "DVDev" (Discern Visual Developer) parameterised reports;
"Discern Analytics" (internal report writer), IM200 nightly data extracts
The current national contract for the provision of Cerner ends in November 2015 and
the Trust is now part of a framework contract to reprovide the service. The use and
development of Cerner Millennium is a core element of the Trust’s IT Strategy.
One of the key elements of moving to a direct contractual relationship with the
system supplier is the need to streamline workflows and processes within the
system. For example ordering of pathology and radiology tests and reviewing
results should be simpler and quicker than it is. This will be akey part of the
reprocurement.
PACs
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The Trust was originally provided with the GE PACs as part of the National
Programme for IT. This contract ended in June 2013 and the Trust went live with the
Cerner PACs in July 2013. This provides a truly integrated PACs as part of the EPR
as well as being a PACs that can be used for storing any other other suitable image
type. This could include digital ECGs as well as ophthalmic images.
Radiology Information System (RIS)
The Trust’s original RIS – which is used to manage the administartive functions of
the radiology department – was HSS and this was also provided as part of the
National Programme for IT. The contract ended in June 2013 and the RIS system
was replaced in July 2013 by the Cerner RadNET solution. Again this is part of the
overall EPR system.
5.1.3 Clinical applications that sit outside of the EPR
Pathology
i.Lab (Apex) is the Pathology Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)
which was installed in 1999. The functionality of the LIMS can be divided into the
following Laboratory phases, with numerous software functions for each





the reception and log in of a sample and its associated patient data with Order
Communication or data entry staff
the assignment, scheduling, and tracking of the sample and the associated
analytical workload
the processing and quality control associated with the sample and the utilized
equipment and inventory
the storage of data associated with the sample analysis
the inspection, approval, and compilation of the sample data for reporting
back to the requestor.
In 2001 an Anticoagulant Management software (RAID) was introduced which
monitors and doses patients on oral anticoagulants. The patients INR result is
entered onto the system and the software uses this result to calculate the patient’s
next dose and date of next blood test which is then printed and sent to the patient
Maternity
The maternity system manges all part os the obstetric pathway and includes full
integration with NHS Numbers for Babies. The system supports the production of
all the relevant clinical documentation abd has been in use iwthin the Trust for eight
years. At the current time the system is not fully integrated with the EPR but doing
this is part of this strtegy.
Pharmacy
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The principle system within Pharmacy is JAC. This is used for stock control,
labelling and reporting and is the key system within the department. JAC has been in
place for over 20 years and whilst the Trust is currently on all old version of the
software it is expected that a fully supported version will be in use by end of March
2014. The system has an interface with Cerner for the delivery of patient
demographics into JAC and it is planned to upgrade this to allow transfer of supply
orders from Cerner and information on the order back into Cerner.
Prescription Trakker – this system is used for logging prescriptions into and through
the dispensary and is visible on a web browser on the intranet. It allows wards to
track TTO's and has been in place about four years.
5.1.4 Supporting administrative functions
Data Warehouse
The Trust’s data warehouse is used to manage all data relating to patients and their
activity. Its two primary purposes in this regard is processing data so that the Trust
is paid for the work it does and also reporting on performance against national and
local targets such as the ED 4 hour standard.
Information Portal
Data from the warehouse is made available throughout the Trust using the
information portal – a part of the intranet – which allows managers and other staff to
access a range of performance reports.
Docman
Docman is used to transfer document electronically between the Trust and local
GPs. It is one way only – outbound – and allows items such as discharge
summaries and outpatient letters to be quickly received by GPs and uploaded
directly into their GP systems.
Electronic Discharge Summaries (EDS)
EDS is used by junior medical staff to create discharge summaries which are then
transmitted using EDS. It is linked to the EPR and is also populated in part by
pharmacy so ensuring that the letters contain detailed information on patients
medication on discharge.
Integration Engine
The integration engine is used to transfer data between different systems. An
example is pathology results which are created on the pathology system and
automatically uploaded into the EPR. It is a very significant element in ensuring that
data integrity is maintained across systems as well as helping to drive efficiency.
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Electronic Financial Systems
In 2006 the Trust outsourced the provision of the majority of its core financial
electronic systems (accounting systems, cash management, procurement and other
“back office” finance functions) to NHS Shared Business Services (SBS - a company
part owned by the NHS and Steria).
The Contract, for a fully managed Finance and Accounting service, was awarded in
2006 for 6 years. In 2012 the Trust renewed the contract for a further 6 years (2018 with a break at the end of year 4, and aligning the financial systems and payroll
contracts). There is no short term intention to re-tender this service.
The service procured from SBS provides the infrastructure (the ledger and webbased reporting) and processing for all of the Trust’s financial transactions.
The benefits of the SBS finance system are a state of the art ledger, web based
reporting and a paperless audit trail, installed in one goes with financial savings from
not needing staff to do processing. The only dis-benefits are around the flexibility of
reporting (bespoke reporting was originally problematic but now being corrected –
there is standardised reporting across all SBS clients) and the ability of others to
access the Trust’s ledger data without Trust permission.
The SBS contract does not provide a full finance service and a (small) team of
specialist staff is still needed to oversee the Trust’s accounting and provide
management information to the Trust. The saving in 2006 and later in 2008 totalled
£440k of revenue costs.
Detail components of SBS service:
Functionality
Notes
Ledger system
Oracle 10.5 ledger was replaced with upgraded Oracle
functionality - arguably, the most powerful ledger
system on the market.
Web-based reporting and detail drill down to
documentation. Electronic sign off of invoices and
paperless audit trail.
Reporting & sign
off systems
Purchasing
process
Receivables and
payables
processing
Cash
management
SBS carries out admin with suppliers of goods and
deals with initial issues – full e-procurement additional
system upgrade achieved in 2011.
SBS raises invoices and collects debts (up to a set
point) and processes all bills received and deals with
initial issues. Invoices are scanned and placed
electronically within the paperless system.
SBS manages cash in Trust bank accounts and its
“investment” while unused
The Trust manages its contractual activity and income through what is generally
called a “service level agreement management” (SLAM) system custom designed for
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the purpose (which includes updating by software owners in line with NHS payment
by results detail).
This system is connected to a costing module (“Costmaster”) that takes ledger data
from the SBS system and converts it into costs directly linked to the activity
recorded. This allows the production of service line reports that show profit and loss
against each service line (main specialties) or, if the system’s full capability is used,
at levels down to individual patients.
This system is operated as a managed contract by Civica and is not due for renewal
until 2017, although break clauses allow for faster replacement if appropriate. There
is no desire currently to change this system which is now being embedded as the
core of the Trust’s service line reporting. The system has the capacity, with
upgrades, to be web-enabled allowing access by users across the Trust.
There are two other key electronic systems supporting the finance function as
follows:
 Asset management: the trust’s database of assets (property, plant and
equipment) is kept on relevant software provided by Real Asset Management
(RAM), which has been in place in the Trust since 2010;

Charitable funds are accounted for using an off-the shelf standard Sage
accounting system. This service was previously outsourced but was brought inhouse in 2012 and the software package has come with it. The package may be
changed once contracts are renewed. The in-house service is considerably better
than the previous service.
ESR
ESR is a national Human Resources and payroll system and the Trust makes use of
its functionality for its workforce information provision via the national data
warehouse and for locally produced workforce performance reporting and monitoring
(staff in post, turnover, ethnicity appraisal and training KPIs).
ESR is also the platform used by our third part payroll provider Shared Business
Support (SBS) thus ensuring that the business process efficiencies of a single
electronic HR/payroll system are maintained.
ESR is an oracle based system and is supplied via a contract held at a national level
with McKesson. There is no cost to the Trust for its use. The current contract
expires in 2014 and a national procurement process led by the Department of Health
is in place. The Trust will have opportunities to input into this process through its
network events.
Functionality for ESR includes:
 Interface with NHS Jobs for recruitment and new joiner information
 Interagency transfer of employee data between NHS organisation
 Automatic update of professional registrations with GMC and NMC
 Interface with NHS Pensions for updating of pension records
 Automatic returns via data warehouse for NHS workforce census data
 Training record management
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
Interface with Finance Ledger
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ESR is also the platform used by our third part payroll provider Shared Business Support
(SBS) thus ensuring that the business process efficiencies of a single electronic
HR/payroll system are maintained.
Staff Roster
The e-rostering system is used by the wards to complete rosters for all their areas. It
also generates electronic time sheets of enchantments that are due to employees
and is linked to payroll and ESR.
At the present time nearly 70 wards and similar areas produce electronic time sheets
and nearly 2,000 staff members’ rosters and rotas are managed by the system. Of
these approximately 95% are nursing or clinical staff (excluding medical staff).
The system is also used to book and record the usage nursing bank and agency
workers across the Trust.
iFIT
iFIT is the Trust’s Medical Record management system and is used to track the
location of movement of casenotes both within East Surrey Hospital and when Trust
notes are used off-site. The system is based on RFID technology and is one of the
most sophisticated such systems in use within the NHS and as a consequence the
Trust is often used for reference visits by other Trusts.
5.1.5 Patient Facing Systems
Patient Entertainment System
In 2011 the Trust went live with the Azzurri Patient Entertainment system in
Copthorne and Charlwood Wards as part of the opening of these two new wards.
This provides each bed with a dedicated digital device that provides TV, Radio,
Internet and telephone. This is provided at no charge to the patient and has
significantly enhanced patient experience in those wards. Subsequently Brook
Ward has also had the system installed and it will now be a standard part of any
ward refurbishment work that takes place.
Wi-Fi
Free Wi-Fi is available throughout East Surrey Hospital for patients and visitors.
This will allow patients to bring their own devices and provide a similar experience as
described in the previous paragraph. Again it is clear that this significantly enhances
patient experience and the Trust has no intention of charging for this service. In the
future this can also be used for future developments such as digital way-finding and
linking to patients smartphones.
Summary
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The Trust’s existing IT estate is a typical mixture of different systems from a range of
suppliers. Given the focus on developing Millennium as the Trust’s EPR system this
range is probably less than a typical district general hospital. One of the risks with
this is that there is a sense of a single-point of failure. The Trust believes that this
disadvantage is outweighed by the desire to have one point where all relevant
patient information is delivered to clinicians.
It is also important to remember that small things can have a significant detrimental
impact on users desires to use IT in patient-facing situations. For example a less
than satisfactory PC can have a disproportionate influence on users uptake of the
Trusts systems and it is vital that not only are systems themselves of the best order
but that the network and general infrastructure is similarly so.
6. Detailed IT Plan
The IT Plan detailed below has been developed from the strategic plans compiled by
the clinical divisions, (where clinical plans are expected or known to necessitate IT
activity) and the IT department’s own plans including maintenance and
modernisation. It also strongly references the clinical strategy.
Project Title
Description
Links to
Key
Element
Time
scale
Cerner LC1
EPR
Replacement
The current contract for Cerner Millennium
ends in October 2015. This contract is
owned by HSCIC and the Trust will need to
re-procure its own instance of the system.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
2015
/16
It is planned to be live by May 2015 and will
replicate all Cerner functionality in place at
that time.
New Data
Reporting Tool
The current system – IM200 – is not
available post October 2015 as it is supplied
through the national contract and not
available outside that route. The Trust will
therefore replace this with Cerner PIEDW
software available through HSCIC and will
go live in Autumn 2014.
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2014/
15
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Project Title
Description
Links to
Key
Element
Time
scale
e-Prescribing
Use electronic prescribing for inpatients and 1, 2, 3, 5
outpatients. Deployment project underway
and there will be a partial go-live in
November 2014. This is the HSCIC
supplied product and going live before
contract end will allow the Trust to use this
software post go-live with the new contract.
Full roll-out will occur after bedding in of new
EPR.
2014
/15
Server
operating
system review
and upgrade
NHS Mail
Upgrade of end-of-life Trust operating
systems
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 2014/
15
Provide upgraded email solution
1
Pathology
Upgrade
As part of the proposed pathology
development with BSUH it will be necessary
to procure laboratory system that meets
long-term Trust requirements.
1, 2, 3, 5
Remote
Working
Allow staff to access all systems from other
locations including working-at-home:
a) General access for staff (e.g. email)
b) Specific system access (e.g.
radiologist investigations)
1, 5
2014
/19
Electronic
Document
Management
Digitise all Health and/or Corporate records
including A&E cards. This will have very
significant benefits both in terms of ensuring
clinicians will have access to patients data
as quickly and easily as possible but will
also lead to very significant revenue
savings.
1, 2, 5
2017
/18
Telemedicine
Provide tele-medicine links where patient
care and hospital efficiency is enhanced by
its presence.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
2016
/20
Links with
Primary Care
Provide links between Trust and primary
care providers, e.g. community hospitals,
direct access for GPs scheduling patient
appointments
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
2016
/20
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust-IT Strategy
2014
/15
2015
/16
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Project Title
Description
Links to
Key
Element
Time
scale
EPR on mobile
devices
Optimised user access to EPR system using
portable mobile devices such as tables and
smartphones
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 2015/
16
Single Sign-On SSO will allow users to use NHS Identity
(SSO)
Card to access all Trust systems, which is
more secure and easier for users
1, 2, 5
2014
/15
PC Power
Savings
This will ensure that we are able to reduce
the energy used by individual PCs and
similar devices
1, 2
2014
/15
RadioFrequency
Identification
(RFID)
Further utilisation and rollout of RFID.
1, 2, 3, 5
2015/
16
Network
Upgrade
The Trust’s network will require a major
upgrade in the medium future to ensure it
fully fit for purpose
1, 2, 5
2016/
17
Active
Directory
Upgrade
Digital Pens
Upgrade Active Directory directory service
for Trust Windows domain network
1, 2, 5
2014/
15
Remote system access and storage facility
for midwives
1, 2, 3, 5
2014/
15
Mobile Device
Management
solution
Image access
and storage
Implement a mobile device (e.g. tablet, etc)
solution
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 2014/
15
Roll out image access and storage solution
usage of Trust CAMM facility to nonRadiology departments
1, 2, 5
Can be used to track portable devices such
as oxygen cylinders as well as supporting
management of staff such as porters.
2014/
16
The following table shows the capital allocations for IT over the period 2014/15 –
2018/19. The two principle items are the EPR replacement in 2015/16 and the
introduction of document management for patient records starting in 2017/18.
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust-IT Strategy
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Information Technology
IT hardware
14/15
300
15/16
16/17
17/18
18/19
19/20
Total
300
300
250
300
800
800
2,800
509
4,327
Network Upgrade
EPR Replacement
2,000
Document Management
EPMA
Email replacement
Windows upgrade (IT)
Total
250
4,836
542
200
400
1,951
1,000
3,000
72
614
200
400
4,699
550
2,300
1,800
800
12,100
7. Strategy Evaluation
The SaSH IT Strategy is routinely reviewed in regular meetings convened to assess
progress at each level of IT activity and is formally considered alongside the Clinical
Strategy at specific Management Board - Strategy meetings. Formal reports
detailing progress of the capital programme are provided regularly to Finance and
Operational management meetings.
The following meetings ensure frequent oversight of various aspects of the strategy:
Frequency
Monthly
Monthly
Event
Purpose
Clinical Health
Informatics Group
(CHIG)
Forum established to enable operating divisions
and support services to highlight ward
improvements required and for allocation of
funds for such works to be agreed.
Finance and Workforce
This Board sub-committee ensures that the
strategic requirements of IT are effectively
monitored.
8. IT Strategy Implementation
The SaSH IT team believe that this strategy clearly sets out the context and shape of
the activities which are likely to be undertaken during the next five years.
It is anticipated that there will be changes to some of the specific schemes but key
objectives such as delivering the clinical 5 will remain as central to the delivery of the
strategy.
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust-IT Strategy
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