Kingston NHS Foundation – Data migration
Data migration made simple with Bedrock Real Time Connector
Background
Like many healthcare organisations, Kingston Hospital was using an outdated data management and reporting system that could not meet their requirements for real time reporting from Electronic Patient Records (EPRs).
Historically, Kingston Hospital has used overnight extracts from its core clinical system to populate its data warehouse for management information reporting. Bulk processing can cause issues such as extraction errors, delays, data quality and timeliness of data.
At the same time, there is increasing pressure for NHS Trusts to provide high quality real time or near real time information to a range of stakeholders and partners as well as the desire to utilise data for their own operational efficiency.
“We had years and years of relying on overnight feeds. When they fail it can all go wrong because you have to load data manually and in the right order. We were keen to move to a new environment ASAP as data extraction was very painful for everyone involved,” explains Ursula Kingsley, Deputy Head of Information Services, Kingston Hospital.
The initial goal for the project was to achieve real time data access, but Kingston Hospital also has ambitions to use analytics for performance-based predictions.
About Kingston Hospital NHS Trust
Kingston Hospital is a district hospital and Foundation Trust in southwest London that provides a full range of diagnostic and treatment services in the surrounding area. In the last year, the Trust saw over 127,000 patients in A&E, delivered almost 444,500 outpatient appointments and cared for more than 67,000 admitted patients. They employ around 2,900 staff with another 300 staff employed by contractors.
Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has a national reputation for innovative developments in healthcare, particularly in ‘patient-focused’ care across its services including emergency, day surgery and maternity services.
Why Trustmarque was selected as a partner
Trustmarque is well-versed in the issues NHS Trusts are facing in pulling data from EPR systems. We were able to demonstrate to Kingston Hospital our unique position; offering a consultative approach based on unrivalled market knowledge to identify the right value-based solution.
As part of the consultation, Trustmarque introduced Kingston Hospital to a similar data migration project at Royal Berkshire Hospital where they were using the Bedrock data extraction tool. According to Ursula, when they saw the effectiveness of Bedrock in operation they were “bowled over”.
“Trustmarque have strong competencies around prediction which is an area the NHS is moving into. Being proactive and understanding the ‘what if’ scenarios is crucial to understanding your service and working in the most efficient manner to deliver better care. We have an impartial view of the market, so we can really look across the vendor landscape to find the right solution, whatever your data challenge.”
Zoe Dronfield, Trustmarque Client Manager
The solution: Bedrock Real Time Connector
Bedrock Real Time Connector is a data extraction tool that moves data from Cerner to a local SQL Server database within just a few seconds. Bedrock is highly specialised in the healthcare market and works very efficiently with Cerner data platforms, however, it can also be used to support any EPR system.
It is designed to simplify data warehouse management, making processes and reporting faster and more reliable. Large updates can run in minutes and the data is always available 24/7.
The extracted data can be used for a range of operational needs; monitoring patients in A&E, daily finance reporting and other operational notifications via mobile apps. Discover more
The outcome and benefits
Bedrock Real Time Connector has enabled the Kingston Hospital to achieve its core objective of real time access to EPRs. The biggest benefit has been the simplicity in the solution, with data extraction now something they simply do not need to worry about. This has paved the way for the potential to redesign their overall data warehouse and IT infrastructure.
“I have to say I am very impressed with the lack of involvement needed with the product. I’ve not had to do anything, it just works. And it works fantastically well. That’s the biggest compliment I can pay and certainly a Godsend from my point of view.”
Isaac Chapman, Data Warehouse Lead at Kingston Hospital
Advice and next steps
“If you’re looking to update your Data Warehouse, look at all the solutions available and don’t necessarily go for the first one,” says Ursula. She said that thanks to the success of Trustmarque and Bedrock, they are now looking at other ways they can transform their data and data processes in areas like predictive analytics.
Ammy Singh, Head of Solutions at NCS-IT, the consultant who led the Bedrock Real Time Connector installation, said the exciting thing is what happens next. He commented: “Extracting data in real time is just the tip of the iceberg. We have the foundations now to do a whole data warehouse solution. Working with Trustmarque and Kingston Hospital, I’d like to help them to take advantage of the data so they can start to leverage what is at their fingertips.”
Zoe from Trustmarque added: “I am proud of the work we achieve at Trustmarque and the ethos of our company and our selected partners. We all truly want to make a difference. It’s everyone’s business to improve the NHS and ensure we find the right solutions to any challenge. We look forward to supporting Kingston Hospital further on its transformation journey.”
It’s time to change your data warehouse
Bedrock Data Warehousing hosted on Microsoft Azure and delivered by Trustmarque puts your teams in control, enabling them to provide the right reports to the right people at the right time with the right data in real-time.
Trustmarque has partnered with Bedrock Data Warehouse for more than 10 years. They serve the needs of multiple types of NHS organisations including Acute, Mental Health, Community and CSUs. Bedrock Data Warehouse has been designed and built by NHS and data warehousing experts. With over 14 years of NHS experience and 19 years of data warehousing experience, Bedrock is an extremely efficient solution to the ever-expanding needs of NHS organisations.
