Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is transforming its approach to hospital management and patient care with the introduction of an Amalga Unified Intelligence System (UIS).

 

A data aggregation platform for healthcare, the solution enables health professionals to unlock the patient data stored in a wide range of existing systems and make it easily accessible to every authorised member of the team inside and outside the hospital. This in turn helps managers make more-informed decisions in relation to patient care and the best use of resources.

 

 

At Milton Keynes, the UIS will bring together clinical and operational data from 10 disparate core business applications and connect key staff to the information needed to carry out vital tasks, from providing patient advice and care to financial planning and better management of care and performance. It will also make reporting much more efficient and flexible, helping Milton Keynes Hospital achieve its desire for better performance and reporting, while meeting government mandates such as the 18-week referral-to-treatment requirements and care pathways.

 

David Powell, head of IM&T at Milton Keynes Hospital, told HES: “The Microsoft solution complements and enhances both our nationally-provided systems and other legacy systems already in place, providing a comprehensive view of clinical information from multiple sources within the hospital.”

 

The trust’s finance director, Wayne Preston, added: “Making major service improvements while reducing costs looks like a tough proposition at first glance, but we already have the means to achieve this at our disposal and are now much better positioned to leverage the solutions available through the National Programme for IT.

 

“Most hospitals have all the data they need within their underlying systems to make significant service improvements, but often it is just locked up in data silos.”

 

The Microsoft solution is used in 115 hospitals around the world, improving patient care and organizational efficiency by turning data into meaningful information.

 

“We believe this will not only help us to operate much more efficiently, but more importantly it will increase patient safety and quality of care”

Dr Sandro Lanzon-Miller, the trust’s medical director, said: “The UIS is a central component of our overall strategy as it makes our data much more accessible, particularly for clinicians. It also aggregates information, meaning we can gain a full picture of what is happening both historically and in real-time. We believe this will not only help us to operate much more efficiently, but more importantly it will increase patient safety and quality of care.”

 

The Amalga solution was procured by the trust through technology solutions provider, SCC, as prime contractor under the Buying Solutions IT Goods and Associated Services Framework.

 

Steve Shihadeh, vice president of the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft, said: “Many hospitals really are sitting on a goldmine of patient and hospital data in the UK, but we have proved in every hospital we have worked with that the data already held can be made to work better for patients, clinicians and hospital managers. With greater accessibility and aggregation, healthcare professionals can deliver the insights and analysis that health providers need to make huge progress.”