Clair Chew
Please note this page was last updated in 2019. Visit Clair’s LinkedIn profile for more information.
Clair is leading the benefits realisation work for UCLHospital’s implementation of the electronic health records system.
Clair’s background is in materials chemistry research and she was also on the Policy & Strategy strand of the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme. Clair is absolutely fascinated with detail, theory and love complex problems. What particularly interests Clair is the interaction between people, technology, systems and organisations.
Digital Pioneer Fellowship: Implementing a new electronic health records system
Problem: UCLH uses a best-of-breed approach with a paper-based medical records resulting in a fragmented and labourious error-prone system. Staff spend time focusing on fixing the system rather than on value-added work. A new electronic health records system (EHRS) has been procured as a solution to this problem. I am making sure we are clear on what the benefits are and problem-solve barriers to realising them. There are many barriers to adoption at UCLH especially because we are a large organisation serving people with complex health needs.
Solution: The EHRS will replace most of the clinical and management systems. Benefits realisation management should help UCLH adopt the EHRS by focusing on the end goals, holding them to account, and clarifying the steps needed for change.
Scale of the project: Benefits of the EHRS span quality, safety and clinical improvement, efficiency, and research. It goes live in all 5 main UCLH sites on 31 March 2019. There are over 8,800 staff. Every year, they see over 1 million patients, 140,000 through A&E, with over £1 billion turnover. They treat complex patients – over half the income is from specialised commissioning.
Desired impact: The end outcomes of benefits realisation is to improve the quality of healthcare by improving patient experience, increasing clinical effectiveness and providing safer care. The project will ensure effective communication with patients and partners, free staff from menial work, embed safer pathways, perform world-leading research, and become sustainable.
Progress to date: UCLH has been designing, testing, and training, essentially, getting ready for go-live. Clair has engaged with staff and used the business case to draw up a benefits register, started setting up the project management office, metrics and governance structure. Clair is also supporting the development of other functions such as aligning our improvement culture with the management of the EHRS.
“I applied to join the Fellowship following recommendations from an alumnus and a trusted colleague. I was a few months into a new job and thought it was the perfect complement to enhance my new strategy and project-based digital role.
The elements of the programme that created the most value for me were the Action Learning Set sessions. I enjoyed building relationships with the rest of my cohort and learning about their projects, the similar difficulties we face and the different ways to deal with things. Being on the Fellowship has given me the opportunity to talk and discuss my work, improving its quality and my confidence.
Benefits realisation is a long-term programme, involving adoption and culture change, therefore, I was given the opportunity to work on additional short-term projects – one being rolling out is video clinics. I progressed this project at pace with successful engagement of clinicians, managers, pilot team members and external industry partners. Six services have now signed up to be early adopters. We are looking to get these sites live by the end of 2020.
I have gained immense value from the mentorship and feel much better connected having participated on the Fellowship programme.”- Clair Chew