Mersey Care NHS trust makes high demands of its
travelling workforce. Mobile IT has enabled it to greatly improve
efficiency and team communication
The organisation
Mersey Care is one of only three NHS trusts nationally providing
the entire range of specialist mental health services, from
community care through to the most specialist high-security
forensic services. This provides a major opportunity for it to
improve the experience of service users and carers across the whole
spectrum of care and for staff to share and develop their
expertise.
Communications challenge
The trust provides care for a large area, with more than 50
sites spread across Merseyside. Managers spend a large amount of
time travelling between these sites and attending meetings at other
NHS sites across the UK.
The distributed nature of the organisation means that the trust
managers have very little opportunity to return to the office to
check e-mails, and they found it difficult to keep in touch with
their colleagues.
The trust had tried a number of systems to let managers access
their e-mails, including dial-up remote access from home PCs and
alternative mobile e-mail systems, but found them difficult to
manage and use.
Systems overhaul
After researching other e-mail solutions, the trust chose to
trial the BlackBerry wireless handheld. The trust has initially
rolled out BlackBerry to its managers, with a larger roll-out being
considered to include clinicians, to allow easy access to e-mail
and calendar information.
The roll-out involved a simple implementation of a BlackBerry
Enterprise Server that enabled secure mobile access to the trust’s
e-mail systems over the GPRS network.
The trust also plans to investigate enabling access to patient
administration system from the BlackBerry device. This will enable
clinicians to access patient case histories when out on visits.
Customer ROI
The availability of mobile e-mail has enabled Mersey Care to
greatly improve efficiency and team communication. The benefits
include:
- increased work-life flexibility for managers, who no longer
have to make long journeys back to the office at the end of the day
to check e-mails
- easy-to-use devices reduce the amount of training required,
with managers using the BlackBerry device for both voice and
e-mails
- simple IT management as the devices are easy to set up and
support, reducing time spent administering remote access. This is
made easier by the dedicated BlackBerry technical support team and
IT helpdesk site provided by Orange
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Quotes
“The BlackBerry has enabled our management team to work more
effectively and efficiently. It has ensured they keep working as a
team even when they very rarely have the opportunity to meet up. It
is an easy solution to use and so has become an integrated part of
how we work, ensuring fast, accurate communication across the
organisation, helping us to be even more efficient and provide a
high level of service.”
Mark Blakeman, director of information management and
technology, Mersey Care NHS trust
“Information sharing within organisations such as the NHS is
vital to ensure proper management. This has always proved difficult
when teams are spread across such a large number of sites. The
BlackBerry device is easy to use and is an ideal way for teams to
keep in contact. I am hopeful that this example will lead other
organisations to see the real benefit of enabling mobile
working.”
Alastair MacLeod, customer development director, Orange
Business Solutions