I’m mid way through an EPR implementation where I’ve come in to support the interface workstream. We’ve had to re-code almost everything to make it work… and to help enable that and clear the way for successful development and testing work, we developed a framework:
1: Prioritise
Focus on what matters most, engaging clinical leads and quantifying risks and opportunities
2: Design
Understand the service and their needs by showing up, and mapping a future-state workflow. Pay attention to what data needs to go where, when - and then get it down in a map that marks up the message triggers and data payloads, and what that then enables
3: Freeze
Especially if in an EPR or new build project, ensure that the building is done or at least controlled enough such that the connection you build is not then going to break. If you are pursuing in-context launches or query-responses, it is possible to relax this step a bit more than direct data feeds.
4: Map
Create and maintain a live central reference of the data dictionaries in the source and destination systems, and agree how that will be controlled and communicated with your app managers. For larger projects like EPR, engage your data and data migration colleagues early - it will save time to have the same data map across the project.
5: Deliver
Write the code / configure the TIE / transform databases / engage suppliers to create a point connection… (the easy bit)
6: Validate
Rather than rushing to UAT with a basic flow, consider data-driven system integration testing to see where data items aren’t flowing in your connection, and consider what you are testing for and why. Where you have a lot to validate, its possible to chunk this up and distribute it with the right controls. Also consider moving from test to staging to live, and where migrations and Master Patient Indexes need additional verification around data migration or unusual registrations, changes or transitions
7: Monitor
Consider how you can set up your interfaces to make it easy, fast and obvious when something goes wrong with the connection. Consider, if you have a wider integration programme, how you can provide simple, positive reporting of the stage (1-7) each of your integration projects is up to, and secure support from colleagues to measure the benefits. You can then use all of this to negotiate the resources and attention required to make integration a success in an NHS organisational environment.
Question: Do integration aligned colleagues think that this is something that will work as ‘bau integration’ outside of an EPR programme? What steps do we do best in the NHS?