Tags: EPR

SynApps Solutions awarded to the new National Framework Agreement for Legacy Information Integration and Management

18
Jul 2023

Hatfield, UK – July 18^th , 2023 – SynApps Solutions, the enterprise content management specialist with deep experience across the NHS, has announced that it has been named as one of six suppliers to the £150 million contract following the launch of a new framework agreement, designed to allow NHS trusts to procure legacy information and management solutions.

The framework, managed by the Commercial Procurement Service and set to run until 2027, is expected to meet the challenges presented by migrating from one patient administration system to an EPR. It allows for the procurement of a cloud-based or on-site archive which interfaces directly with a live EPR, so clinicians can access archived clinical patient data seamlessly from within the live EPR.

The data is then extracted, analysed and migrated to the new system, ensuring the data is usable in the new system. Data can be extracted from multiple systems and aggregated into one archive, simplifying access where multiple systems may have been in place previously. The archive and the live EPR will interface directly, and access to the archived data is available within the new EPR system, streamlining access and allowing the legacy contracts to be ended.

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Commercial Procurement Services recognised the challenges faced by many NHS organisations around how to deal with legacy applications and data; thus, creating the new framework agreement to enable NHS Trusts to purchase solutions and services to help tackle these issues.

“We are delighted to be one of only six vendors on this framework, which will help clinicians access archived data and patient information seamlessly from within their EPR,” comments Jason Scholes, CTO, SynApps Solutions. “SynApps is transforming the way NHS Trusts provide the whole patient record (DICOM/non-DICOM) to clinicians via existing EPR systems and share the records with other healthcare providers in the local community so this Framework is a natural fit for us.”

SynApps provides software, consultancy, implementation and support services for Alfresco and OpenText Documentum and has authored a suite of content integration and migration solutions, ConXApps, that allow businesses to quickly maximise their investment in ECM technologies. The company also builds VNA (Vendor Neutral Archive) solutions which extend into VNIN (Vendor Neutral Imaging Networks) for shared Radiology. These provide proactive image sharing, cross-network reporting, CDC support, a single view of multimedia data, and image sharing within and beyond regional imaging networks, leading to enhanced patient diagnoses and outcomes.

SynApps Solutions is also part of several other government frameworks, including NHS Supplychain, QE Facilities, and the North of England Framework.

Insight

19
Jun 2023

The aim of the Framework is to enable technology leaders to work in partnership with public sector organisations to shape and deliver their digitisation and transformational goals. The framework satisfies the Public Sector’s entire Information Communication Technology and digitisation requirements.

Find out more here.

SynApps Solutions appoints Gary Donohue as NHS Account Director

24
May 2023

Hatfield, UK – May 24th, 2023 – SynApps Solutions, the enterprise content management specialist with deep experience across the NHS, has appointed Gary Donohue as its dedicated NHS Account Director. His remit is to grow the company’s already substantial footprint within the NHS.

Donohue has a long and well-regarded career in the healthcare technology sector, including spells at Salesforce, Hyland, yHEMC and Fortrus, where he specialised in application user experience, content management and business process management.

“I am delighted to join SynApps Solutions, which has been helping NHS Trusts across the country to modernise everything from patient records to lung screening and radiology scans,” comments Gary Donohue, NHS Account Director, SynApps Solutions. “SynApps is a pioneer in advanced vendor-neutral archives, lung diagnostics and radiology technologies so it is an exciting time to come on board and continue to change healthcare and patient outcomes for the better.”

SynApps is transforming the way NHS Trusts provide the whole patient record including (DICOM/non-DICOM) to clinicians via existing EPR systems while sharing the records with other healthcare providers. This includes local community and potentially nationally fully supporting integrated healthcare in-line with the NHS directive for converged healthcare for NHS Trust’s, ICS/ICB bodies, Mental Health, Social Care and Local Authority organisations to deliver integrated care and pathway automation.

“Gary has a wealth of healthcare technology experience going back over fifteen years so we are thrilled to welcome him to the company to help us provide even better service to our NHS clients,” adds James Paton, CEO, SynApps Solutions. “We expect Gary to be a most valuable member of the SynApps team and look forward to working together.”

SynApps Announces the General Availability of its New eReferrals Gateway Solution, Developed in Partnership with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

15
Sep 2021

The native NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) integration, which is already generating significant interest among UK trusts, will allow secondary care providers to digitally disseminate referrals to clinicians with patient records

Hatfield, UK – September 15^th, 2021 – SynApps Solutions, the enterprise content management specialist with a leading presence in UK healthcare, has formally launched its new e-Referrals Gateway solution for NHS Acute hospitals.

Developed in partnership with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, the solution allows e-Referrals content to be stored and accessed digitally alongside electronic patient records – addressing the inefficient practice of e-Referrals being printed out and circulated manually within hospitals. Crucially, secondary care providers can connect this to their existing patient administration or clinical systems, whatever the underlying repository – whether Alfresco, Documentum, etc.

The SynApps e-Referrals Gateway, which was tested in a successful proof-of-concept project at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and is set to be rolled out to other UK trusts, bridges a gap in NHS Digital’s electronic referrals initiative. Usually, when e-Referrals come in to Acute hospitals via the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS), the content is printed out before being passed to the relevant consultant.

“The NHS e-RS is really just a user interface through which hospitals retrieve electronic referrals,” explains Jason Scholes, CTO and co-founder of SynApps. “Unless this is integrated with everyday hospital systems, the digital benefits stop at the hospital threshold. And, once the content is transferred onto paper, it carries the same risks of the notes going astray, or not being readily accessible, as have traditionally been the case with written or faxed referrals.”

SynApps’ e-Referrals Gateway provides the means for e-Referrals content to be captured and stored alongside electronic patient records, or other existing clinical systems (for instance those holding medical imaging records). The idea is to give clinicians seamless and concurrent access to everything they need, on demand, as part of a broader workflow. Unlike other solutions in the market, it doesn’t ‘screen scape’ the referral notes, but captures them natively using the NHS’s native e-RS application interface (API). This enables richer information to be captured, and supports rapid search.

To optimise the solution, SynApps partnered with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, a valued customer and digital trailblazer. “It was important that we got this right – and what better partner than Sandwell – a visionary Trust and a very knowledgeable customer of ours,” Jason comments.

Sandwell, which has eliminated paper from its sites in recent years and embraced electronic patient records, seized the opportunity to automatically upload referrals to its EPR system, so that consultants can triage them directly and move them to clinics.

Word of the latest SynApps/Sandwell collaboration has already reached neighbouring hospitals, generating a lot of interest, and a major London hospital is among the latest to implement the solution.

Says Liam Kennedy, Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, which is co-marketing the e-Referrals Gateway, “We are very ambitious in our vision and are now in the top quartile among NHS Trusts for advanced digital operations. With SynApps’ support we’re storming ahead, and we’re keen to help light the way for others who want to learn more about what we’ve done.”

“We’re excited about the potential of the e-Referrals Gateway,” Jason at SynApps adds. “Existing NHS e-Referrals handling is at odds with Trusts’ paperless strategies. It is also critical that Acute Trusts are able to handle referrals reliably and effectively, with good traceability – so that they get paid for their work and cover their fixed costs. With this new solution, devised with proactive input from Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, we’re bridging that gap.”

SynApps Accelerates Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust’s Digital Transformation

09
Dec 2019

Integrated Paperless Patient Administration Solution Provides On-Demand Records Access

Hatfield, UK – December 9, 2019 – SynApps Solutions, the content management and process automation company, has transformed document and patient records management for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, reducing administration, freeing up space and making access simple.

Across the Trust’s diverse operations, clinicians and administrative support teams process around 3,000 live or new patient records each day and call up a further 250 legacy records from its archives. Before 2016, this activity was paper based, relying on large teams of people to access the correct files in advance of patient appointments and get them to where they needed to be.

To improve efficiency, reliability and the quality and consistency of patient care, and to be able to meet the latest Government and Department of Health requirements around digital patient records management and information security, the Trust needed to modernise its processes and capture and manage patient records and correspondence electronically.

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust chose SynApps Solutions because it was a proven supplier of integrated healthcare record solutions to the NHS and, as an independent provider, it could tailor its systems to the needs of the Trust and deliver in its required timeframe.

SynApps Solutions deployed Alfresco Content Services, a full-featured electronic content management system, as its digital repository for scanned medical records, where they can be quickly called up by any authorised healthcare provider at the point of need, via the Trust’s in-house Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.

“Whether it’s a consent form for surgery, notes from a previous outpatient appointment, or trend information about outpatient cases, clinical notes can be called up at the click of a button now,” explains, Liam Kennedy, Deputy chief operating officer, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust. “The ease of access, and ability to spot trends, means better patient care and patient outcomes, which is our priority. The solution SynApps has provided makes a huge difference.”

Efficiency savings have been substantial too. Closing on-site medical records libraries has freed up valuable space for use as part of the Trust’s investment in research and development, and more than 26 administration staff have been freed up for other work elsewhere across the Trust.

“The new paperless administration solution at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust is further demonstration of SynApps’ expertise in the UK healthcare sector,” adds James Paton, CEO at SynApps Solutions. “We know how important robust document and records management is and are delighted to make such a positive impact on clinicians and patients alike.”

Read the Case Study here.

Join us on June 22nd/June 23rd – London and Liverpool Healthcare Events

06
Jun 2016

Have you registered for our events yet? We still have places. Click on the register link below

London, June 22 – King’s College, Waterloo Campus, London SE1 9NH

Richard Jefferson, Head of Programme Commissioning at NHS England, will be joined by David Taylor, Programme Lead at Virtual Worlds and Medical Media at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Liverpool, June 23 – Maritime Museum, Liverpool L3 4AQ

David Walliker, CIO at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust will be leading this session, highlighting the strategies and solutions that have helped Liverpool Women’s achieve the highest level of digital maturity for both its readiness and infrastructure.