After acquiring the hospital from Spire Healthcare, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has rolled out Altera Digital Health’s electronic patient record in less than six months.
Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise electronic patient record (EPR) with integrated patient administration system has gone live at Fordcombe Hospital.
The hospital was acquired by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust from private provider Spire Healthcare for £10 million at the end of March last year.
The trust has expanded its care capacity and treats a significant number of the patients who are longest-waiting in Kent and Medway. Almost 1,700 patients have already been transferred to the hospital for treatment and a further 800 will be transferred by the end of March 2025.
“I’m pleased we’ve been able to support the new facility with an effective EPR foundation as it moves forward to reduce waiting lists and respond to increasing demand,” said Sue Forsey, director of IT at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.
“The trust is already seeing the impact the additional capacity is making to patient care and experience,” she continued.
Fordcombe Hospital is the 23rd NHS hospital in England to use Altera’s Sunrise EPR. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has been using the system throughout its other hospital sites since it was introduced in 2021 across all 32 adult inpatient wards, three paediatric areas, two emergency departments, order communications, and outpatient services.
The rollout at Fordcombe Hospital took less than six months. Once the IT infrastructure was in place, patients were registered on the hospital systems and the new teams were trained on how to use the integrated PAS and Sunrise within two weeks.
“Sunrise can be deployed at pace and scale, and delivers convergence across multiple sites to adapt to the increasing requirements in healthcare delivery and data sharing, due to its flexibility and agility,” said Rachael Fox, executive vice president of EMEA at Altera Digital Health.
