Milton Keynes University Hospital is seen as one of the most innovative in the NHS. The medium-sized district hospital provides a full range of acute hospital services and an increasing number of specialist services to the growing population of Milton Keynes and the surrounding areas.
With around 550 beds and employing more than 4,000 staff, the hospital sees and treats approximately 400,000 patients each year.
The leadership team at Milton Keynes hospital saw an opportunity to gain the advantages of scalability, agility and resilience of cloud computing. It chose Microsoft Azure and worked with Microsoft to develop and optimise a migration plan.
Data security was a key factor in the choice. Craig York, Chief Technology Officer at Milton Keynes University Hospital, explains, “Working in healthcare, obviously the data we look after is incredibly sensitive and we know that Microsoft is looking after our data very seriously.”
The migration went very smoothly. Now, Microsoft Azure will be a platform for ongoing digital transformation. “The connectivity and migration to Microsoft Azure is incredibly smooth, fast and efficient,” says Craig York. “Once we’ve got that, it allows us to innovate at pace.”
Microsoft 365 was a key part of the hospital’s digital strategy – something that has paid off during the last year.
“Microsoft 365 opens up all sorts of possibilities – it’s a real enabler of remote working,” says Debbie Phillips, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Milton Keynes University Hospital. “Of all the suite of products in the Microsoft 365 suite, the one we have seen the most exponential use of over the last twelve to eighteen months would be Microsoft Teams.”
Hospital staff have been using Microsoft Teams for internal meetings, to share and discuss papers and for video consultations with patients.
As well as benefitting from the Microsoft productivity apps hosted in Microsoft Azure, the hospital has also deployed Microsoft Power BI to help accelerate the use of and value derived from data.
“For us in clinical practice, what we really want to be able to achieve is to get the potential for our electronic health record in real time and change that data into information that is meaningful,” says Ian Reckless, Medical Director at Milton Keynes University Hospital. “Power BI has proven to be a really effective interface.”
Clinical staff feel really comfortable using Microsoft Power BI to showcase, manipulate and share information quickly and easily. New apps have helped to automate and streamline processes. For example, a tool to automate results endorsement has eliminated thousands of paper-based actions and reduced the amount of time spent by clinical staff.
The innovative use of the tools now at the team’s disposal following the migration to Microsoft Azure has helped the hospital respond to the pandemic. For example, another report tracks the number of patients in the hospital who have had a positive coronavirus test. Debbie Philips admits, “It’s kind of hard to imagine how we would have managed without it, to be honest.”
Moving forwards, the same tools and skills will help the hospital team to continue to innovate and to accelerate the pace of innovation in the coming months and years.
“Power BI has proven to be a really effective interface.”
Ian Reckless, Medical Director, Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
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