As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to place exceptional levels of pressure on the NHS, Cerner Corporation continues to work around the clock to support NHS clients and partners with the digital innovation and technology required to confront the challenges presented by this global pandemic.
Last week, the government announced that 100-acre convention centre ExCel London would be turned into a temporary hospital to aid the city’s response to the pandemic – the Nightingale Hospital.
Today we announce that Cerner will be providing the electronic health records (EHR) platform that will help healthcare professionals providing care in this facility to access and record relevant information for COVID-19 patients in a scalable, reliable and accessible place.
The technology will be used as an extension of the Cerner Millennium ® domain already in place at Barts Health NHS Trust – the largest NHS trust in England and one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers.
Sharing Barts Health’s EHR means that the staff working at the Nightingale Hospital will use most of the technology and processes already successfully implemented across the Trust’s five hospitals. It also means that any staff from Barts Health providing care in the temporary hospital will already have access to the system, which will reduce the need for additional training.
Barts Health’s EHR is already connected with the network of pathology services providers in East London. Along with those working in Barts’ permanent hospital sites, staff at the Nightingale Hospital will be able to request tests and access results rapidly and electronically – helping to drive quicker discharge of recovered patients and maximise hospital capacity.
Furthermore, London-wide connectivity, enabled by Cerner’s Health Information Exchange (HIE), is also already established between Barts Health and the local primary and community care providers. This allows seamless sharing of patient information locally, and then across London’s other acute Trusts via the OneLondon Local Health and Care Record Exemplar (LHCRE).
Improved connectivity will give clinicians at the Nightingale Hospital real-time access to information about a patient’s health and care journey that could turn out to be paramount for their treatment, regardless of where they have been transferred from – helping to improve care coordination and efficiency.
“These are unprecedented and extremely difficult times for the NHS and our clients in the UK. Having been asked to support this temporary facility and extend our support to the NHS makes us feel honoured and humbled in equal parts.
“Working closely together, NHS and Cerner teams have managed to get this new facility created within the system in just a matter of days. This goes a long way to show the great things we are all able to achieve when we work together towards a single goal, and for the benefit of millions.
“Today, the NHS’ goal is to keep as many people as safe as possible throughout this pandemic and to be able to look after those who are most vulnerable and have been affected by the virus – our goal is to provide them with the tools and the support that will help them get there."
Distie Profit, managing director, Cerner UK
Notes for editors
At Cerner, we believe in building positive, long-term partnerships that drive value across the health and care landscape. Our intelligent platforms and services connect people, information and care at 27,500+ facilities of all sizes in 35+ countries, and help manage the health of 223 million citizens across the globe.
Together with clients and industry partners, we’re innovating for the future, integrating entire health and care systems to enable them to deliver smarter, value-based care, better outcomes, and proactively manage and improve the wellbeing of their populations.
In the UK, our powerful, open and interoperable Cerner Millennium EHR platform is utilised by 144,000+ health and care professionals across 24 NHS Trusts to manage 1.5 million patients every month, our Health Information Exchange (HIE) is sharing over 19 million health records, while our population health intelligence platform, HealtheIntent®, is contracted to help clients proactively manage and improve the health of over 9.5 million individuals.
