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Improving joined-up care with a single patient record system
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Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has transformed how it delivers community mental health care by moving to EMIS Web®. This change means that for the first time, clinicians across mental health, community and primary care services can access and share vital patient information on one system, giving them a full picture of their patient’s health and helping improve outcomes.
Tackling fragmented systems with EMIS Web
Before the move to EMIS Web, the Trust was working across two separate electronic patient record (EPR) systems. This made it difficult for clinicians to access the information they needed, especially when patients were moving between services. Primary care, community teams and mental health professionals often had to rely on emails or phone calls to fill the gaps, which slowed things down and added to administrative burdens.
The switch to EMIS Web helped overcome this. The Trust already had a strong foundation using EMIS Web for some of their services and extending it felt like a natural next step. As Kim Webster, Head of Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Learning Disability Services at the Trust put it: “Our GPs use EMIS Web, and working in an acute setting we've got very strong ties to our PCNs, so EMIS Web felt the best option.”
A redesign that puts patient care first
For the Trust, this wasn’t just about replacing a system — it was a complete redesign of how services work together.
What we've gone through is not just an EPR change. We've gone through an internal redesign; it's been a huge piece of work and EMIS Web has been crucial for us to achieve our goals."
Kim added, “I always take it back to patient care and how that benefits the patient. If people don't get an intervention because you've not got the information that’s a problem — but with EMIS Web teams have access to the information they need to deliver safe care.”
Real-time access across services
The project has allowed the Trust to join up care across different areas, ensuring that clinicians can view and contribute to the same record, regardless of where a patient is being treated. Lucy Harvey, Community & Primary Care EPR Manager at the Trust, explained: “It was really important that the solution we chose was integrated and we could offer that real time view. The whole point was to move away from a silo and into something where we had real time access to information. It felt like moving to other solutions wouldn't have offered us this because EMIS Web is our predominant EPR in the field, so it made sense.”
Supporting smooth transitions between services
One of the most important outcomes of this change is the ability to support patients as they move between services — especially when care needs change suddenly, or when young people transition into adult services. “Depending on the complexity and the acuity of patients they can quickly go from one extreme to another,” Kim said. “So, we’ve got to be able to move patients to the appropriate services — from low level interventions to quite complex crisis cases. Likewise, when a patient moves from children’s services to needing adult mental health care it's crucial that the new team can access information from the patient being a child to prevent gaps in service. With EMIS Web we can now do this, so there are huge benefits in terms of quality, delivering patient pathways, patient care and continuity of care.”
Saving time and improving care delivery
Clinicians now save time and can respond faster to patients in need. Kim shared a recent example: “Everybody on the team can access EMIS Web so we know where we were up to with them in terms of mental health assessments. Historically, we've never been able to do that. There would have been emails and phone calls to chase up missing information. We have access to that information across the board now and things can be done much quicker."
Collaboration at the core of digital transformation
The Trust worked closely with Optum throughout the process, and the shared commitment to making the project a success was clear. Lucy, Community and Primary Care EPR Manager, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “I really felt like we were collaborating well across the board, not only from our own internal teams, but from Optum’s side as well. Everyone on the project was working towards the same goal, we were all collaborating. It felt very unique that everybody was wanting to make this happen.”
For Kim, the impact of the EMIS Web implementation goes beyond technology.
It's been a phenomenal piece of work, and I can honestly say in my NHS lifetime I've never seen anything so slick, organised, delivered in such a short space of time. This has been the best project I've ever had the pleasure to be involved with. I'll use this as an example of something that works incredibly well in the NHS.”
A blueprint for future digital healthcare
Through EMIS Web, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has created a joined-up system that supports patients with more responsive, coordinated, and informed care — at every stage of life.