UHSFT
were deploying . We knew the advantages and what we could gain out of it because we ' d actually done a lot of that appraisal before we deployed to the organisation ,” he added .
Looking at more patient-focused technological initiatives , Pinto outlined how technology supported the Trust during COVID . During this time , it was imperative medical staff had real-time notification of when a patient received a COVID diagnosis so they could be appropriately isolated and treated .
“ We had a system in place that meant in real-time , clinicians had access to positive results , they knew immediately on their device that a patient was positive . This was great for infection control , as the patients could be moved to a safe area and they could start their treatment ,” he said .
“ You couldn ' t really get a better example of being well-prepared , because we ' d already started to think about this , and then we could just turn that into a project that had immediate benefit for patients ,” Pinto added .
Looking at UHSFT ’ s digital journey so far Adrian Byrne , Chief Information Officer at UHSFT reflected on the impact of COVID in the context of his 18 years of work as CIO of the Trust : “ I know people like to talk about the change under the pandemic and I say it ' s kind of obvious because of the impact of it . We would never go from 100 people using a system to 5,000 people using a system in two months the way that we did .
“ But if you look at the organisation transformation over 10 years , going from an organisation that used to prescribe on paper , that now electronically prescribes ; from an organisation that didn ' t have a wireless network to one that has a complete wireless network . Those kinds of things are much more impactful in the longer run , I like to think ,” he added . Despite the Trust ’ s willingness to invest in digital over the past years , Byrne did commend his team ’ s efforts to keep their spending on digital technologies as low as possible .
“ If you look at our model hospital data , you will see that we ' re well into the lower quartile in terms of spending . In terms of the size and complexity of our organisation , we are low on the spending chart , but we ' ve achieved quite a lot ,” Byrne explained . UHSFT has adopted
214 February 2022