Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (SHSC) has confirmed Healthcare Consultancy Apira as its EPR Programme Deployment Partner.
Apira will be the Trust’s partner on the deployment of a multi-million-pound software roll out. The new EPR will provide clinical and non-clinical teams with improved access to patient information, making it easier for staff to access the right information at the right time. The solution will also operate beyond the SHSC by integrating with other local, regional, and national systems. This will help to improve service user safety by providing a more accurate view of every service user and the care provided to them.
“We are delighted to have been successful in our bid to become the deployment partner to Sheffield Health and Social Care, following up on our work to support SHSC with its Business Case and Procurement for an EPR Solution partner.” Charles Skinner, Executive Chairman. Apira Ltd
“We have been working with SHSC throughout 2021 to support the Trust to prepare and move through a procurement process to select an EPR system provider. Our strong background in Mental Health which includes recent support for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) to safely procure and subsequently deploy their EPR solution, place us in a great position to support SHSC. Working closely with the internal team we engaged hundreds of clinicians and service users through the process starting in May. Throughout SHSC colleagues demonstrated a strong appetite to be involved in the programme and to move onto a new EPR solution. This will build on the success SHSC have achieved through their in-house built “Insight” solution over the last seventeen years. We very much look forward to helping the Trust deploy their new EPR solution over the coming months.” Iain Borland, Managing Consultant (and Programme Manager for the SHSC EPR Deployment Programme).
“The implementation of the new EPR is a major change programme for SHSC and it was crucial that we selected an experienced deployment partner that can work with us and the EPR solution provider to safely and successfully deploy the solution and deliver the required change. Apira’s experience in deploying EPR systems and helping NHS trusts to deliver change was a perfect fit for our requirements, and we were pleased to appoint them via the NHS England Health Systems Support Framework following a competitive procurement process”. Nikki Woodhead, Head of Procurement, Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
“Whilst our internal EPR system has served us well over the years, in order to meet the changing demands of our service users, both in terms of the care they require and the way our services are delivered, we needed to move to a new EPR solution. Following a competitive procurement process last year we selected the Rio Servelec EPR solution, and we are delighted to have now appointed Apira as our deployment partner.
Apira is a strategic partner, supporting SHSC and Servelec to manage the deployment of the new EPR, including supplementing our internal team with a number of key resources. Having supported us through the development of the business case and the procurement for the new EPR, we already have an established and healthy working relationship with Apira and are pleased that this will help to provide continuity as we move forward with the deployment. Andrew Male, Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO), Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
Further info. Apira was awarded the contract for Deployment Professional Services and Consultancy, following a competition via the NHS England Health Systems Support Framework. Apira also supported SHSC’s successful bid for funding from the NHSX Frontline Digitalisation Unified Tech Fund to support the EPR Programme.