Implementing the ESR Interface to UIM Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Case Study
About the Trust
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is amongst the leading NHS Trusts in the country, serving a population of over a quarter of a million people in the Barnsley area and employing almost 3000 staff. The Trust is renowned not only for top performance, but for its friendly culture, first-rate environment and convenient location. HPMA Awards Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was runner up for the ‘best practice and innovation using ESR ’award at the 2011 HPMA Excellence in HRM Awards. The judges’ commented that Barnsley has ‘pushed the boundaries of ESR further with their exemplar deployment of the system for e-learning and access to clinical systems’. User Identity Management During the last 18 months, Barnsley Hospital has been a pilot site for the ESR interface to User Identity Manager (UIM). It has also successfully implemented the ESR National Learning Management System (NLMS) eLearning as a fully Smartcard enabled application. Following the First of Type Pilot going live in March 2010, the ESR Interface for Phase 1 Pilots was activated in April 2010. The management of Smartcard
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access to NHS CRS systems via ESR commenced immediately for all their staff. The ESR Interface is triggered by changes made to an established position within an employee’s assignment and automatically creates, updates or revokes an individual’s access rights to NHS CRS compliant systems. It enables the management of access control following a change to the employee’s position within ESR.
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust UIM Project Team The key departments involved in the UIM project were HR Projects, Informatics Training, Learning and Development, IT and Information Governance with the full support of the HR Director. The departments had to work together to share expertise and knowledge in order for each project to succeed. Using Prince 2 methodology, a regular Risk, Actions and Issues log monitored progress. As Barnsley were a pilot site for UIM, they provided regular returns and benefits analysis to the NHS ESR Central Team. As the projects were Trust wide, all staff were directly affected by the changes and most were fully committed to the new developments which enabled maximum benefits to be achieved. Key Benefits Realised • For new staff joining Barnsley the new system is much slicker. ID badges and Smartcards are issued on the same day and by the same department meaning full employment checks only need to be completed once;
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• The removal of issuing smartcards from the IT Department has resulted in approximately 3 – 5 hours per week being saved; • The automatic removal or change of access as a result of a termination or change in assignment status in ESR has led to improved Information Governance and increased security. Prior to implementation this process could take up to 5 days to complete; • The time taken to Register new users has been significantly reduced as the information is produced automatically by ESR and does not need to be re-entered into UIM; • Issuing all new staff with a Smartcard ensures access, where required, upon commencement in post; • Access to NLMS via a Smartcard reduces the need to manually create user names and passwords in ESR; • The interface allows Smartcards to be prepared in a far more efficient way when compared to standalone UIM. This is particularly beneficial when deploying Smartcards to support the introduction of new systems such as NLMS. • Smartcards can be created during the recruitment stage and this has been of particular benefit when there are large intakes of staff e.g. Junior Doctors; • Increased confidence that internal processes fully support the NHS Care Record Guarantee and protect patient confidentiality; • Reduction in Sponsor (Line Manager) responsibilities. Efficiency Gains Following the implementation and deployment of the ESR interface to UIM a number of efficiencies have been realised: • A 55% reduction in time taken to register new starters, equating to a £8.56 saving per new starter; • A 55% reduction in the time taken to action changes in access rights for staff members managed via the interface, equating to a £3.56 saving per change in assignment; • A 33% reduction in the time taken to action person detail changes; • A 0.77 WTE saving, equating to approximately £15k per annum, due to the removal of duplicated business processes for Smartcards and new starters; • A reduction in time taken for staff to complete the new starters process to obtain all relevant badges and system access. This is now completed in one visit to the HR department lasting approximately 15 minutes. Feedback Following Implementation Kim Reynolds, Workforce Information Officer at Barnsley Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said “The ESR interface to UIM has improved the efficiency and governance arrangements within the Trust and new staff are experiencing a much more streamlined recruitment process.
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I would strongly recommend Trusts to opt to use the ESR interface as well as UIM in order to achieve the maximum benefits from this solution. Don't be scared to attempt this project. Although it may seem a difficult task, it is not as complicated as it may first seem.” Katie Hyde, Information Governance Manager added “Having these controls in place provides greater security and enforces strict access controls by revoking access when a staff member leaves the Trust or moves department internally where that access is no longer required”. Lessons Learned/Advice to Organisations • Don’t let one department decide on the processes, the decisions should be made jointly; • Look at the Recruitment and RA processes side by side and focus on where duplication occurs and think about the experience of the new starter during this review process; • Take the opportunity to ensure current access is correct before creating Access Control Positions; • PBAC mapping is not a difficult process; just ensure you take the time to get it right; • Once you are confident that your Access Control Positions are mapped correctly try them out on a few people in the current RA software before you perform the linking; • Link ESR positions to Access Control Positions a few at a time, if you have to ‘back track’ it will not take too long; • Communicate your plans to others, e.g. make sure IT is aware that you are changing people’s access so that they can notify you of any Smartcard access related problems. For more information For more information about the experiences of Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust use of the ESR Interface to UIM, please contact: Kim Reynolds, Workforce Information Officer, HR Projects, kim.reynolds@nhs.net For further details regarding Integrated Identity Management, and the benefits this can deliver, please visit http://www.electronicstaffrecord.nhs.uk/esrprojects/integrated-identity-management
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