Made for sharing: MOSS 2007 and the NHS

It's useful having lots of data, but it’s not so useful if you can’t find it when you need it most. Paul Curran discovers how one trust tackled the problem of being ‘data rich but information poor’ by investing in Microsoft communication and collaboration technologies.

Every day, NHS staff waste precious time searching for information they need to do their jobs. All too often, they stumble across data that’s out of date, or they can’t find what they’re looking for and end up recreating work that has already been done. 

“Nowhere is the ability to find information and collaborate with colleagues more powerful than in an NHS organisation,” says Microsoft technical strategist Nick Umney. “A problem for many trusts, however, is that staff have stored their information on the network drive, making it difficult to find and share.

“When we developed Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS), our goal was to connect people and information across traditional organisational boundaries.

“The content management, business intelligence and collaboration tools it contains makes SharePoint ideal for busy health trusts, where very often lives depend on people making accurate and timely decisions.”

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint enables an organisation to create a web portal - or intranet - which employees can use to store and access their own information and documents securely from any location, via a standard web browser or mobile device.

They can then choose to share that information with fellow team members and peers. “In the NHS, this means busy clinicians need only go to one place to pick up everything they need to do their job effectively,” says Mr Umney.

“SharePoint makes employees more productive by providing them with the level of access relevant to their role and responsibilities – in other words, they only see what they need to see. It also integrates closely with Exchange and Outlook, allowing them to access and modify documents anywhere, anytime - and making document version control easier to manage.”

For example, instead of constantly searching their email inbox for the latest version of a file, users can go to a central location to find it - and know it’s the latest version. And rather than sending endless emails, they can update everyone on their project through blogs, wikis, or their own personal ‘MySite’.

Electronic forms available in MOSS can also dramatically cut paperwork. However, Mr Umney says that for NHS organisations in particular, a key strength of SharePoint is its ability to connect clinicians together using a ‘People search’ function.

“If someone needs to find information or an expert on a specific topic, they can search the trust’s resources using built-in search features. In an emergency situation or for a second opinion, a nurse can immediately locate all the doctors in cardiology, for instance, and know if they can be contacted online at that particular moment. 
 
“SharePoint allows a trust to achieve all of these things in one solution that has a consistent interface and works with the Office software staff have used for years,” adds Mr Umney.

Connecting people in real time

Among the NHS organisations now using this technology to streamline their working processes, increase efficiency and improve patient care is University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, whose 10,000 employees are spread across eight sites across the city centre.

Initially, the trust used the SharePoint environment to create an HR Web and to revamp its intranet. As well as giving staff new ways of finding, accessing and sharing information, it is now being used to help them contact one another in real time.

“We’re using the technology to make people feel part of one organisation,” says communications manager, Ben Harris. “We wanted to replace our old homepage because it was unappealing. By creating a new one within SharePoint, we’re now delivering consistent trust messaging that staff can also customise with the things they need to do.”
 
Better communication and collaboration were vital for the trust in its bid to achieve foundation status last year. It saw SharePoint as a tool to increase its efficiency and maximise its expertise in key areas, such as R&D.

“We’ve built on the foundation of the IT that we already had, as there was lots of good stuff there,” says systems development manager Chris Berrington. “What we really needed was to tie it all together. Our intranet was based on old technology and not really doing its job. We were looking to replace it and came across SharePoint in the process.”

Removing barriers to communication

Microsoft created a proof of concept to show United Hospitals Bristol how SharePoint could address some of its strategic issues. This included document management and workflow tools to illustrate how these could streamline working processes.

For example, an improved ward admission procedure was demonstrated, using InfoPath forms that could be linked back into the trust’s existing systems.

“SharePoint did what we wanted it to do, but we soon realised it would also do lots of things that we hadn’t even thought about - like improving collaboration and workflows,” says Mr Berrington. “It’s now helping people find documents more quickly.

“It’s encouraging collaboration and because it’s paper-light, there’s less waste. We also have better control of who has access to data and what they can do with it. But what really attracted us to SharePoint is that people can use it with some pretty basic skills.

“If they wanted to use our existing intranet they had to come and be trained in its magic. Whereas now, if they know Word, they can already find and use a document in SharePoint, which removes a huge barrier to communication.”

Unlocking expertise

Mr Harris says the trust is now using SharePoint to create online communities that mirror its structures and groups of staff within it, such as junior doctors and nurses.

“As well as enabling clinicians to access latest versions of guidelines and documents, we were attracted by the MySite aspect of Sharepoint, which allows us to build communities so that employees tap into our collective knowledge,” he says.

“Ours is a very large organisation employing lots of very highly skilled people. SharePoint gives us the means to unlock that expertise.”

 Related Articles:

Read how unified communications is impacting the NHS; technical strategist Nick Umney gives some key insights and advice.

Read about how another Microsoft application, PerformancePoint has joined the SharePoint stable.

Read about how the Care Quality Commission has used SharePoint to build an Info Cabinet to improve its monitoring and inspection of heatlhcare organisations.