To NHS digital transformation teams: don’t assume that staff welcome EPRs
By Charlotte John, COO, Healthcare Innovation Consortium
I know what it is like to work in the rewarding but pressured NHS. During my 20 years in the NHS, I have been a night shift end of life care assistant; emergency theatre runner in maternity; operations manager for long term conditions; managed discharge referral services; and I have carried out over 1000 postmortems.
Digital transformation has been an NHS priority for years, focussing on the integration of digital solutions to improve the efficiency of patient care. And as we know, one of those national priorities is to digitise patient records to improve the access to healthcare information.
The CEOs, CIOs, and digital teams in a trust or ICS understand the national and regional priorities, the need for an EPR system, and what is meant by the words “Digital Transformation”. To a nurse, a doctor, to me on the ward after a 14-hour shift, what I hear is “IT Change”, and with change sometimes comes a resistance. A resistance that stems from human fear.
- Fear of the unknown – new IT systems can be overwhelming and look complicated
- Fear of losing your job because of automation and AI – those quicker, faster, smarter solutions
- Fear of losing the human interaction, which is vital to patient care and the reason we work in this sector
- And a fear of technology failure affecting patient safety and having to revert to old ways that we have been asked to change
Those heading up digital transformation might understand the bigger picture, possibly with ideas of their own on how clinical services can be improved through digital innovation. But before they agree the next programme of work, I ask them to:
- Understand the barriers and challenges that staff are facing right now in delivering care
- Use language they understand that explains to them the day-to-day benefits (and challenges) of using a new system
- Involve them right at the beginning of the journey so they know why and how this change can help them professionally, but also personally in helping to alleviate some of the fear they feel
What I have learnt over the years from listening to frontline staff is that you can never assume. You can never assume that they understand the strategic decisions being made, that they know what digital transformation means, and that those priorities for change are positively shared and understood. Everyone is different and everyone deserves to know what is happening in their place of work and is invited to get involved.
Never assume they understand and share your vision for the future, that they will welcome in new technologies or willingly adopt these new ways of working.
My advice? Ask me and ask them. Because the success of the adoption and spread of your EPR implementation lies with those who use it.
I always say: you don’t need to be technical to drive digital transformation, but you do need to understand people.
