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MPFT has a significant number of systems in use across the organisation. Due to the scope of care delivery, it is not possible to enact a single Electronic Health Record (EHR) strategic approach without significantly limiting the required specialist functionality in our systems.

As a consequence, this means that MPFT Digital adopt a best of breed approach, utilising the right system for each specialist service, whilst consolidating as many services as possible onto our primary EHR, RiO, wherever it is practical to do so.

MPFT Digital Service Development, in partnership with our product owners and our procurement team, need to maintain a large number of contracts and supplier partnership arrangements.

Our suppliers are essential in delivering our digital strategy and without the continual development and enhancement of the systems they provide within MPFT, we will fall short of our ambitions.

Our MPFT Digital team will work with our suppliers to keep updated on all upcoming systems developments, ensuring that the service we are receiving is in-line with the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) specified within the contract, and to maintain awareness of other supplier’s innovations which may supersede the existing suppliers and systems in use. This will ensure we get the best value for money from the systems we use and will help to build and maintain our strategic and commercial partnerships

Ensuring our suppliers comply with open standards, interoperability and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) will enable the sharing of information between our systems in a secure manner. This will help to support Trust compliance with security standards and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This will maintain privacy our service user information.

Supplier performance

We know how disruptive it can be when our digital services fail and perform poorly in some way.

Through greater understanding of each of our services and their individual business continuity plans and critical delivery areas, we can ensure that when issues occur, we can have responsive IT support in place.

Our systems need to be stable, simple to use, secure and make our service user and staff lives easier.

With continual partnership working with our suppliers and workforce and a meaningful, responsive, customer focus, we can ensure our systems are fit for purpose and our services are offering excellent support.

When tickets get logged with our IT services, we are often reliant upon the subjective opinion of the call logging technician within the IT call centre to understand the impact and urgency of each request. 

This can sometimes result in priority tickets and IT requests that have an impact on care and quality of service to not have the correct priority set and an appropriate response time put in place.

Through our newly introduced escalation process, we will be able to guarantee a response and a review of any ticket that is logged with any IT service within the organisation when the need arises.

This escalation service is in high demand, as evidenced throughout our digital engagement sessions.

At present it is not always clear who can support which system and who can be contacted if an IT fault or request ticket is overdue and needs urgent resolution.

We also need to simplify access for support services across the organisation. We will make it easier for staff by introducing a seamless single point of access for any issue within the organisation.

By introducing a single front door for support, we can guarantee that our staff will have a more responsive and efficient service.  

“Staff get confused knowing which service to contact to get support”
Sue Garland, Service Manager - City (SoT) Universal and School Aged Immunisation Services, Children’s & Families

Our support desk services will also be further supplemented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) triage technology.

Responsive chat bots seamlessly linked to knowledge base information will help our staff serve themselves, offer advice and guidance, and ultimately empower them to resolve their own issues in a timelier fashion then waiting for an IT technician.

If this service doesn't offer a resolution, our IT technicians will still be available via the phone lines and support desk functions as usual, however, through the AI triage service, they will be armed with more information and attempted troubleshooting steps taken, improving the quality and details within each IT request.

Our ambition is for staff to not be consumed by talking about systems that do not work and devices which are not fit for purpose. By getting the foundations right of all systems and infrastructure, we can focus our efforts on the process improvement, efficiency and innovation areas of our strategy.

  • A review of all external suppliers used across the Trust that offer digital services, and to ensure that the following are in place:
    • Pre-agreed scheduled service review meetings, for example, monthly, quarterly
    • Updated contracts signed and understood with clear terms and expiration dates
    • Clear Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in place and reported within the agreed reporting period
    • Supplier technical roadmaps shared and managed and built into systems strategy
    • Invoice schedules documented and mutually agreed between procurement, finance and MPFT Digital
  • Clearly documented escalation processes and supplier contacts in place for all suppliers
  • Evidencing the best value for money from use of existing suppliers, or reviewing the market when contracts near completion and new innovations become available
  • Ensuring new innovative areas are continually requested and co-designed in partnership with suppliers
  • Ensuring our suppliers are forward thinking and aligning to the open standards and APIs for interoperability and safe sharing of information between systems where appropriate
  • Ensuring our suppliers develop to make use of national systems integrations such as NHS login for identity management and integration with the NHS App for service user access to care records
  • Ensuring our suppliers maintain compliance and evidence their adherence to security and data privacy standards, for example, Cyber Essentials Plus, NHSx DTAC
  • Providing a responsive service for any IT query or escalation and managing our suppliers to provide the same
  • Resolving IT issues efficiently and sharing advice, guidance and information with our workforce at the point of need to improve capability and self-service
  • Evaluation of innovation pilots in collaboration with suppliers
  • Explore common requirements across regional health and social care providers for driving commonality and commercial gain through ICS working
  • Fostering procurement compliant partnerships for new innovation schemes, for example, National Innovation Accelerator through the Academic Health and Science Networks and Pharmaceutical Company partnerships

  • MPFT Wiki knowledgebase and chat bot AI support and guidance system deployment for self-service AI supported responses
  • Leverage broader investments with innovation partners, for example, Keele University and Staffordshire University who are strategic partners working collaboratively to drive research, innovation, transformation and co-creation, showcasing the art of the possible
  • Introduce an internal escalation process for IT support
  • Introducing a single support desk function with AI triage assistance
  • Business continuity plan management system
  • Customer relationship management (CRM) system that captures contacts, suppliers, leads and senior users of all systems
  • Negotiating social responsibility offers with our strategic partners for our digital inclusion and equalities ambitions
  • Building strategic partnerships with suppliers and holding them to account through established service review meetings and monthly activity and performance reporting
  • Ensuring suppliers align to the NHS Net Zero plan for the services they provide and for future services we commission

Measures for success

  • Our staff have a clear process to escalate IT issues
  • Our staff can seek support advice and Trust information through a chat bot
  • All supplier performance and roadmaps are managed through formal review meetings

  • Our staff have one phone number, one portal and one chat bot as a means of getting support

  • Our Trust are frequent early adopters of supplier’s new technology and features
  • Our participation in national partnerships and supplier user groups influences prioritised outcomes

  • Through our suppliers we have implemented: supported, secure and fully open standards, for ICS and national sharing of information
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