Customer profile

Helping the NHS improve services
with electronic patient records

Healthcare | United Kingdom

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust helps
improve patient services, making healthcare data fasterto access with Dell Technologies and Computacenter.

““We’re making it easier for staff toschedule resources and speed up thepatient journey through our hospitals
with VxRail.”
Tom Brown
Chief Technology Officer, Worcestershire Acute
Hospitals NHS TrustBusiness needs
At a moment when the NHS is looking to protect its future
by using technology, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals
NHS Trust wanted to deploy an electronic patient record(EPR) system to improve care services. The Trust had tooverhaul its legacy IT infrastructure and find a solution that
could support the EPR alongside other digital healthcare
solutions in the future.

Solutions at a glance

Business results•

50% faster access to patient admin data for healthcare staff.

•

Better patient services with access to digital care records
from bedsides.

•Streamlined patient journeys with 24x7 access tocare systems.

•Improved sustainability with hyperconverged solution reducing
power use.

•Computacenter Infrastructure
Assessment•Dell OptiPlex Desktops•Dell Technologies & Computacenter
Co-delivery Services•VMware Cloud Foundation

1

““I can see we’re meeting our objectives to make the Trust a better place for ourstaff, our patients and our local community with Dell Technologies.”
Tom Brown
Chief Technology Officer, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

The NHS in the U.K. is under greater pressure with challenges
around funding, staffing and supporting an ageing population.
To ensure the NHS remains fit for the future, the U.K.
Government developed the NHS Long Term Plan, whoseobjectives include giving staff the technology to deliver betterlevels of care.

since 2014, ran an infrastructure assessment to help IT build abusiness case for transforming the old hardware and to collectdata needed to design a replacement infrastructure for theTrust’s long-term requirements.

To meet the NHS challenges, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals
NHS Trust has developed a clinical services strategy to give
doctors and nurses the kind of IT support laid out in the NHSLong Term Plan. Among the strategy’s key objectives aredelivering comprehensive integrated healthcare in the region
for the best possible patient outcomes.

The Trust replaced the legacy technology with VMware Cloud
Foundation on VxRail, the jointly engineered hyperconverged
infrastructure (HCI) by Dell Technologies and VMware. Withits partner competencies, Computacenter was able to deliver
a highly efficient, end-to-end service, co-delivering the solution
with Dell Technologies. It implemented 24 VxRail nodes intotal, with 12 nodes across its Redditch and Worcester sites,
connected by a dedicated wide area network link.

As part of the strategy, the Trust planned the rollout of an
EPR solution. This would give clinicians instant accessto patient data across wards and remotely when in thecommunity. The EPR would also sit alongside an updated
Patient Administration System (PAS) to help speed uppatient pathways through the Trust’s hospitals.

Digital patient data at all times

As a result of the move, the Trust gained the performance
to deliver its EPR and PAS goals as well as future digitalsolutions. It also consolidated its hardware, improving
manageability and reducing power usage for greater

Improving data centre health
To deploy the EPR, the Trust needed to replace its existing
three-tier IT. Tom Brown, Chief Technology Officer at theTrust, says, “The legacy infrastructure was ageing and lacked
the performance and availability to run the EPR 24x7.” Theamount of hardware had also grown significantly over time,making it costly to power and manage. The Trust wanted
to deploy a solution to underpin the EPR and other digital
healthcare systems as well as handle future workloads acrossmulticloud environments.

Maintained focus
on patients byminimizing
disruption fromIT outages

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust engaged with Dell
Technologies Titanium Black partner Computacenter to finda solution. Computacenter, which has worked with the Trust2

sustainability. In addition, by deploying the HCI nodes as astretched cluster using the Redditch and Worcester sites, theTrust improved disaster recovery with servers at one site failingover to servers on the other in the event of an outage. This inturn gave the IT team peace of mind that clinicians would faceminimal disruption, with system access restored in around 30
minutes maximum.

““Clinicians using the PAS,
whose critical functions include
appointment booking andpatient admissions, have seena 50% improvement in speedof data access.”
Tom Brown
Chief Technology Officer, Worcestershire
Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

50% faster access to criticalsystems
With VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail up and running,
the Trust can deliver services more effectively, improve patient
outcomes and streamline pathways through its hospitals as
part of the clinical strategy. Clinicians using the PAS, whosecritical functions include appointment booking and patientadmissions, have seen a 50% improvement in speed ofdata access. Brown says, “We’re making it easier for staff toschedule resources and speed up patient journeys through ourhospitals with VxRail.”

Boosting bedside care
Using the EPR, the Trust will transform patient care in all
its wards. The healthcare provider is rolling out hundreds of
medical carts fitted with Dell OptiPlex desktops so clinicians
can access patient records from bedsides and get the most
up-to-date information for a better quality of care. Brown
concludes, “I look around and can see we’re meeting ourobjectives to make the Trust a better place for our staff, ourpatients and our local community with Dell Technologies.”

3Find Out More About the Dell
Technologies Partner Program.

Talk to Computacenter About
Healthcare Solutions.

Find Out More About
Dell VxRail.

Connecton social
Copyright © 2023 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell Technologies, Dell and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks
may be trademarks of their respective owners. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell believes the information in this case study is accurate as of its publication
date, January 2023. The information is subject to change without notice. Dell makes no warranties — express or implied — in this case study.