West Middlesex University Hospital

West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (now part of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) based in West London, serve a local population of 425,000. It employs 2,000 staff, with around 400 beds and an annual budget in excess of £148 million, with a rolling programme of investment in the latest equipment and technology.

The Challenge

Like many NHS Trusts, West Middlesex was reliant on point-to-point interfaces hosted by multiple software vendors to connect their IT systems directly to each other. This approach was creating unnecessary complexity, increased cost of support and maintenance, high risk of failure and an over-reliance on third parties to make changes.

The old interfaces did not provide the Trust with any visibility of their data, and there was a lack of information pertaining to systems and interfaces, which led to a lot of confusion when support issues arose or when dealing with vendors.

Given the critical nature of healthcare data, an ever increasing demand for quality healthcare and cost efficiency, as well as a multitude of data consumers, a Trust Integration Engine (TIE) was urgently needed. The Trust also wanted to be sure that once the TIE was in place, it would be proactively monitored and supported. The Applications Programme Manager at the Trust realised that the lack of streamlined data access posed an inherent risk and saw an opportunity to take the Trust in a new direction.

The Solution

Integrella put forward a set of services and solutions which included Long-Term Support, Project Delivery Execution and Consulting, as well as a fixed price-list for interfaces. The Trust selected Integrella after a competitive tender process as the most suitable supplier.

Integrella migrated the Trust’s mission critical interfaces onto InterSystems Ensemble, a recognised UK market leader in healthcare-based middleware technology. The Trust soon started reaping the rewards – which included lower costs, planning simplification and more accurate budgeting.

“Many of the point-to-point interfaces between systems are mission critical in nature, and a loss of service can lead to discrepancies in data quality. Accurate and timely patient data is essential for the Trust to maximise its income and ensure clinical risks are minimised. Having visibility of Ensemble enables critical patient data flows to be observed and acted upon immediately should a problem arise. Previously we had to wait until Trust staff noticed a problem operationally which could lead to delays.”

– Applications Programme Manager

The Benefits

The new platform has delivered the following benefits:

  • full visibility of data
  • reduced dependency on third party vendor integration
  • lowered cost of integration and any potential future integrations
  • peace-of-mind knowing that Trust middleware is being monitored, and that an expert is on hand to find potential issues before they arise
  • no unexpected IT integration issues which may impact on staff or budget

Integrella continues to work with the Trust to assist in the implementation of its’ strategic ambitions to create an Electronic Care Record and to lay down their integration roadmap. The Trust continues to reap the benefits of Integrella’s Long Term Support service.

“For us to have implemented the support and maintenance that Integrella provided, we would have needed to employ three full-time integration developers. However, by using Integrella we had all the expertise and man-power needed for the price of just one.” 

About Integrella

Integrella is a specialist IT services company with extensive experience across UK sectors. Our services include consulting, development, delivery, support and resourcing. We deliver our solutions by partnering with top vendors in the industry.

The pressure is on every organisation to be more connected, more convenient, more compelling and more social. These needs drive digital transformation. Integrella can help you realise the potential in what you already have – and set you on the right digital track.

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