Kent hospital goes live with Altera electronic patient record

Fordcombe Hospital in Kent has gone live with an electronic patient record (EPR) with integrated patient administration system from Altera Digital Health.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust acquired the hospital from private provider Spire Healthcare in April 2024 and took over the running of it in October 2024.

The integrated solution, which is aimed at supporting the expanded care capacity, went live at the hospital in October 2024, after taking less than six months to roll out.

Sue Forsey, director of IT at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for the NHS in Kent and Medway that is benefiting patients across our communities.

“I’m pleased we’ve been able to support the new facility with an effective EPR foundation as it moves forward to reduce waiting lists and respond to increasing demand.

“The trust is already seeing the impact the additional capacity is making to patient care and experience. I want to thank everyone involved for their fantastic support and hard work over the last six months.”

Once the IT infrastructure was in place at Fordcombe Hospital, patients were registered on the hospital systems and the new teams were trained on how to use the integrated patient administration system and the Sunrise EPR within two weeks.

Rachael Fox, executive vice President, EMEA at Altera Digital Health, said: “The Altera team takes great pride in providing the trust with its integrated clinical and patient administration solution to support increasing capacity.

“Completing the EPR implementation within six months is an excellent achievement.

“Sunrise can be deployed at pace and scale, and delivers convergence across multiple sites to adapt to the increasing requirements in healthcare delivery and data sharing, due to its flexibility and agility.”

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells has been using the Altera system at its other hospital sites since introducing it in 2021, when it went live across all 32 adult inpatient wards, three paediatric areas, two emergency departments, order communications, and outpatient services.

Fordcombe Hospital will be used to provide planned care in ear, nose and throat; orthopaedics; gastroenterology; diagnostics; and endoscopy.

Almost 1,700 patients have been transferred to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells for treatment and a further 800 will be transferred by the end of March 2025.

The additional facilities include two theatres; 28 inpatient and day care beds; additional diagnostics including X-ray, MRI, CT and endoscopy; and a number of consultation and treatment rooms.

Fordcombe Hospital is the 23^rd NHS hospital in England to go live with Altera’s Sunrise EPR.

In April 2024, Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust awarded an estimated £10m contract for its EPR system to Insight Direct, subcontracting services to Altera Digital Health.