Healthcare’s digital revolution needs solid foundations

As the health sector continues to forge ahead with digital transformation, there are concerns that antiquated or ill-suited IT architecture will leave many organisations at risk of being left behind, leading to circumstances that may actually increase workloads and frustration among staff. As a case in point, integrated care systems across NHS England are in the process of converting to electronic patient records, with the goal of improving data access and efficiency for staff. The government’s recent policy paper, A plan for digital health and social care, makes plain the aim that “all NHS trusts will have an EPR system by March 2025.” Properly implemented, this conversion will open the door to mental health professionals, hospitals, ambulances, social care, GPs and more, having access to the same patient records in real time – improving efficiency, saving time and reducing the potential for mistakes across the board. The BMA’s 2022 IT infrastructure report found that “nearly 71 per cent of doctors reported that current IT systems and infrastructure in their workplace ‘somewhat’ or ‘significantly’ increased their workload,” with the lost working hours estimated to be “the equivalent of almost 8,000 full-time doctors, or nearly £1 billion.” Without intervention, this is a percentage that looks set to increase, rather than decrease, as digital transformation progresses. A recent HSIB report highlighted that clinical staff had consistently found “difficulties accessing digital systems because of limited or poorly functioning hardware”, and that “limited interoperability of multiple digital systems means critical patient information may not be accessible or consistent across all systems used in the care of a patient.” These comments were listed among a number of issues found to have contributed to a patient being misidentified at their bedside.