The Clinical Systems Application Specialist is responsible for the support and service delivery of the Trust’s Community system, specifically for IT related training, Data Quality and System Administration, incorporating system development along with supporting the design, production, development, testing and promotion of the EPR service for the Trust, across complex areas of clinical and corporate services.
The post holder will participate as a key member of the team involved with the development and provision of structured programmes to support individual staff and staff groups within the Trust as part of everyday working practice.
This post will sit within the Digital Maturity Team responsible for providing access to complete, accurate and timely data and information in supporting patient care, clinical governance and operational management decisions.
The Clinical Systems Application Specialist is a strategically important role, supporting the development of the Trust's EPR platforms and making significant contributions to the development of a paperless integrated EPR strategy.
Working closely with the Clinical and Community Systems Managers informing and shaping the EPRs Strategy.
Providing assurance to the Clinical and Community Systems Managers with regard to resilience in relation to deliver/upgrades/downtime in respective systems.
On a day-to-day basis, supporting the Community Systems Manager in managing the Trust's team of EPR Support Analysts, and building strong relationships with operational directorates and corporate teams.
As part of a dynamic and evolving service department, the Application specialist will have a strong customer focus, sharing in the ownership of the complete life cycle of the supported applications.
The Clinical Systems Application Specialist is also responsible for supporting the Clinical Systems Manager in the operational support and system management of Medway EPR, comprising of Medway including Order Comms, Galaxy, EMIS, Evolve, Medisec and associated systems, ensuring that for all modules are fully operational and accessible at all times, in accordance with defined policies, procedures and SLA’s (Service Level Agreements), with designated system responsibility with the ability to cover all systems as and when required.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
Our services:
Acute Care
Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
Primary Care
Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
Community Services
Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
Specialist Regional Services
We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
Achievements:
Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme.
Supports the operational management of the Clinical Systems Team to deliver the Trust’s objectives, making effective and efficient use of resources in the process.
Leads the delivery of local requirements/enhancements for improving their designated clinical systems and data processes and supporting this process for the other corporate clinical systems in the Trust’s portfolio.
Contributes to the delivery of the Trusts IM&T strategic roadmap, taking a lead role for their designated corporate clinical system(s) as appropriate.
Acts as the lead role in the day to day operational management of designated corporate clinical systems and providing cover for other corporate clinical systems as required.
Assists in developing and managing the provision of facilitation and support programmes for new and existing staff in using corporate clinical systems within the Trust
Liaises with the Clinical Systems Training Team to develop processes that ensure a smooth transition to new clinical systems for users and offers support to enable them to utilise clinical applications fully as part of their day to day working practices
Develops data quality audits and action plans in conjunction with the Clinical Systems Manager and the Information team, to improve data completeness, accuracy and timelines, as well as reporting on performance in each of these areas.
Assists in the administration of user access requests as required
Provides expert, professional advice on clinical systems use, data quality and clinical coding standards to all staff within the Trust as required.
Works with colleagues to ensure that delegated project tasks are completed to agreed timescales
Ensures that all corporate clinical systems are configured to collect data that is statutory, mandated or contracted.
Communication & Relationship skills
Receives complex information from system suppliers regarding the management, configuration and use of corporate clinical systems and explains the impact on the Trust’s standard operating procedures of users of these systems to all levels of clinical and non-clinical staff throughout the Trust. Is able to negotiate, influence and persuade staff, as there are often changes to job roles, ways of working and recording standards that may or may not be welcome by the individual users, sections or departments.
Liaises with all levels of clinical and non-clinical staff throughout the Trust to identify improvements to individual corporate clinical systems and clearly explains the required changes to third party system suppliers using the contracted methods as well as user group and other user forums as appropriate. Negotiates, influences and persuades other organisations in building a consensus with other organisations to support this Trust’s proposed changes.
The post holder liaises with third party suppliers and Trust staff in matters relating to both complex and general support issues, software releases, upgrades, testing and fixes. On occasion, this requires negotiation with other staff and/or suppliers on the availability of resources and schedules for implementation.
Offers assurance to the IT senior team and appropriate Trust governance arrangements in relation to the resilience of the system with respect to the application of upgrades and downtime. Leads on the accurate and effective implementation of all new patches and upgrades to the supported systems
Liaises closely with the suppliers of the supported systems to encourage good working relations and to ensure that systems are supported in accordance with relevant contractual obligations
The post holder uses their own initiative to identify where improvements can be made to the operation of corporate clinical systems and informs the Senior Application Specialist accordingly
Exercises their interpretation of policies and how they are implemented
The post holder supports the delivery of internal and external service delivery targets that are geared to improving and progressing patient care, as well as contributing and working to achieve them.
Represents the Clinical Systems Team in the IT Change Advisory Board as required
Represents the Trust at supplier user group meetings, providing user-feedback and knowledge based input to discussions for future developments
Knowledge Training & Experience
The role requires and maintains an in-depth knowledge of the Trust’s corporate clinical systems through supplier led training on the management, configuration and maintenance of the application as well as its general use. This training is refreshed with any change or enhancements delivered by each upgrade or new release.
The post holder supports the configuration of their designated corporate clinical systems to meet operational requirements, including process design, proforma development and role based access configuration (RBAC)
The post holder has an excellent knowledge of the implications of information governance, registration authority, identity management, cyber security, national data standards and coding schemes on the use of the Trust’s corporate clinical systems. Identifies and takes action to resolve any shortfalls or variations from the required compliance.
The post holder supports the scoping of requirements for service development requests, gathering relevant information using various resources, reviewing issues that may hinder or assist the development or implementation of changes to clinical systems.
The role leads the technical input, from a clinical systems perspective, to the development and ongoing maintenance and testing of interfaces between systems.
Supports the identification of new functionality and technologies from supplier provided documentation, evaluating their relevance and potential benefits to the Trust.
Identifies support trends (e.g. several calls about the same problem in a short space of time) and takes action to resolve or mitigate them.
Analytical & judgmental skills
Applies their own expert knowledge and experience to analyse/investigate complex problem situations and provide advice and guidance to colleagues and users when appropriate
Uses their judgement to assist in making decisions on the highly complex requirements posed by development needs, which may have no precedent or where there are conflicting opinions
Offers opinion to the Senior Application Specialist on new industry standards and solutions for clinical systems to ensure that the long term strategy reflects the standards and solutions appropriate to this Trust.
Planning & Organisational skills
The post holder supports the development of long term strategies and plans to develop corporate clinical systems and to implement new solutions to benefit a wide range of clinical and corporate users across the Trust.
Leads the strategic planning in relation to the management and support of upgrades, bug fixes, new releases, testing and documentation for their designated clinical systems.
Ensures that all changes to clinical systems are progressed in accordance with the IT Departments
Change Management Process.
Coordinates the internal IT resource in relation to formulating plans for upgrades/downtime.
Works with colleagues in the IT Department to identify new opportunities for developing and refining corporate clinical systems for the Trust.
The post holder is required to take a lead role in liaising with third party suppliers and Trust staff in matters relating to support issues, software releases, upgrades, testing and fixes.
Contributes to the development, implementation and on-going maintenance of business continuity and disaster recovery arrangements and maintain the necessary knowledge, skills and training to carry out the required actions.
Adjust own workload accordingly to meet the needs of the service.
Physical skills
The role requires advanced keyboard skills, with accurate input and manipulation of data including application and database environments.
Patient and Public Involvement
This role has incidental patient contact.
The post holder has regular contact with business unit staff.
The role represents the Trust at User Groups and staff in other Trust’s with a similar strategy and similar clinical systems.
Whilst working in the patient environment as part of their regular duties, the post holder acts in a professional manner, with particular reference to the principles of patient confidentiality and dignity and respect
