The Q Community, supported by The Health Foundation visited the Ulster Hospital to share our learning from the launch of the new Regional digital patient record system, encompass. The South Eastern Trust was the first Trust to Go-Live with encompass in November 2023 which will be rolled out by all the health trusts in the coming months and years.
The Q Community is a diverse network of health and care professionals committed to improving quality in healthcare. Through shared learning and collaboration, the Q Community fosters innovation and best practices across the United Kingdom.
The visit was spearheaded by senior leaders across Health & Social Care in Northern Ireland, who are at the forefront of this digital transformation, which is the biggest transformation of our health service in a generation.
Everyone there was given an insight into how the encompass programme supports the integration of health and social care services, driving improvements in quality and efficiency. The visit was particularly valuable for those involved in integration across health and care sectors and digital transformation initiatives. There was also an opportunity to hear how electronic patient records can support regional HSCQI improvement programmes.
The South Eastern Trust was the first Trust in Northern Ireland to go live with the encompass programme on 9 November 2023. It represents a significant advancement in the way patient information is managed and utilised. By providing a seamless flow of information across various care settings, encompass ensures that healthcare providers have access to complete and up-to-date patient records. This integration supports more informed decision-making, reduces duplication of tests and procedures and enhances overall patient care. It is an advanced digital system that integrates patient records across hospital care, allied health services and community care that has revolutionised patient care across the Trust.
Delighted to facilitate the visit, Director of Primary Care & Older People Clare-Marie Dickson said, “This is the first time the Q Community has visited Northern Ireland, it is a fantastic opportunity to have a network of ‘Quality Improvers’ attend the event to share, collaborate, network and learn about our encompass journey.
“We have many colleagues who are going live in the next year, so it is important for us to tell them what we have learned, both the challenges we experienced and the successes.”
Director of HSCQI, Dr Aideen Keaney, commented: “As the link partner for the Q Community in Northern Ireland, I am delighted to see so many colleagues from throughout the UK and Ireland here to see, first-hand, some of the excellent improvement work which is going on across Northern Ireland. We greatly value the opportunity Q gives us to showcase this important work and for the platform it affords us to learn from other National Improvement teams.”
Digital Health & Care NI, Chief Digital Information Officer Dan West added, “We are delighted to be able to come together to share our experiences and learnings across our digital programmes and other improvement initiatives across HSC. We want to work together to provide our staff with the technologies that help them do their jobs as well and efficiently as they can each day and, we want to bring all of the areas across HSC together to work collectively to deliver better quality and more efficient health and social care services to the people of Northern Ireland”