Digital transformation for Dudley Trust

The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, based in the heart of the Black Country in the West Midlands, provides hospital and adult community services for a population of nearly 450,000. The Trust’s acute care facility, Russells Hall Hospital, was first planned in the 1960s as a general hospital for Dudley but was redeveloped in the 2000s as the main acute and elective treatment centre for the area. The revamped Russells Hall Hospital was opened in 2005 and cited as “among the most technologically advanced in the country.” 

At the heart of the Trust’s £32 million digital healthcare strategy is the Allscripts patient administration system (PAS) which helps to support all aspects of patient registration and appointment scheduling, patient administration, and bed management within the hospital. 

In 2016, the Trust wanted to retain its PAS, first implemented in 2006, and add clinical functionality. Following an open tender, it announced that it would develop an EPR by deploying Sunrise Acute Care as an integrated solution. Recognising that new models of integrated care rely on information sharing between clinical settings, teams and patients, the Dudley Group announced that it would use the Allscripts population health platform, dbMotion, to support integrated care in the borough and more widely as part of an integrated care system.