We’re in an elite group
It’s official - informatics support at Barts Health is among the best in the world of healthcare IT.
The service provided by our Informatics team scored top marks after assessment by the international body that monitors global digital standards in healthcare.
We are the first NHS trust in the country to get a rating of 6 (out of 7) in this category from the Healthcare Informatics and Management Systems Society (HIIMSS) – and the first healthcare organisation in Europe, too.
Outside the US, only four other healthcare facilities in the world share this accolade, and three are brand new hospitals – in Chennai (India), Seoul (S Korea) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). The fourth is a primary healthcare practice in Wellington, New Zealand.
Confirmation of the award comes as our neighbours at Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust acknowledged our expert help in deciding to install the same Millennium digital system we currently use for patient records.
This means that by spring 2025 the electronic record of someone visiting any one of the seven hospitals run by Barts Health and BHRUT will be accessible to the patient’s clinical team.
Jacqui Smith, Chair in common at BHRUT and Barts Health, said: “This is our integrated group’s biggest and most consequential achievement. Through collaboration, BHRUT has received invaluable support from Barts Health as it introduces this long overdue digital system. Our joint working will make life better for residents and staff.”
Various HIMSS ratings are commonly used in the worldwide healthcare IT industry to assess the digital maturity of organisations. The most common in the UK tests the digital maturity of electronic medical records and we will assess this in due course.
Meanwhile we subjected ourselves to assessment under another category which measures the digital maturity of infrastructure. This is all the rules and processes in place to make a hospital-based IT system safe and secure, including cyber security, communication protocols, datacentre hosting, management oversight and business continuity.
Fay Stevenson, deputy director of informatics and head of ICT, said: “This is not strictly about technology hardware, it’s about the human ability and expertise behind the computers, tablets and phones that keeps all the kit healthy, secure and running smoothly. We are creating the foundation for a digital world that is stable, reliable and enables our staff to deliver patient care.”
John Rayner, the HIMSS assessor, said, “This is an exceptional organisation which worked for many years to achieve this unique status. They have a marvelous ability to translate their advancements in infrastructure maturity into benefits and value for clinicians and patients.”