North Tees has highlighted measurable gains in safety, efficiency, and digital maturity - from optimisation of electronic prescribing and medicines administration to streamlined ICU workflows, as a result of its roll out of an electronic patient record (EPR) system.
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust (NTH) and InterSystems are celebrating a decade of partnership, marking ten years since the trust went live with InterSystems TrakCare, a unified EPR system built on the InterSystems IRIS data platform, renowned for its performance, reliability, and scalability.
What started as a single-system deployment has evolved into a powerful, organisation-wide digital foundation that continues to grow and adapt. The unified nature of TrakCare has been a key enabler of success. The trust has been able to innovate, scale confidently, and deliver change without the complexity of managing multiple disconnected systems.
Over the decade, the trust reports substantial, evidenced improvements linked to its TrakCare programme. Highlights include 10,500 nursing hours reclaimed annually by digitising ward admissions and over 25,000 clinical hours released annually in ICU following digitisation of admissions and documentation. The trust also cites reduced stationery spend of c.£35,000 and an annual carbon reduction of 30.91 tonnes CO2e as paper processes have been retired. These outcomes show how a unified EPR delivers tangible improvements in efficiency, safety, and sustainability.
Key milestones on the journey also include the rollout of electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) in 2018–2019, the launch of Active Clinical Noting for A&E, paediatrics, and clinician admissions in 2020, with nursing admissions added in 2023. More recently, NTH has focused on using TrakCare to help optimise its ePMA processes in the ICU and more widely.
The trust’s progress has been recognised nationally. NTH has earned multiple Health Tech Digital Awards, reflecting a culture of collaboration between digital and clinical teams and a sustained commitment from executive leadership.
In line with this, the trust’s digital, clinical, and leadership teams have worked together to co-design and deliver innovations that truly enhance care. Their shared focus on usability, collaboration, and clinical benefit has been central to every phase of progress, and their efforts were recently recognised with the award of Digital, Data and Technology Team of the Year at the Skills Development Network, hosted by North East and North Cumbria’s regional digital conference.
Marie Collingwood-Graham, Head of Digital Programmes at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, said: “A decade with TrakCare reflects the effort from an outstanding multidisciplinary team and strong commitment from the top. By redesigning workflow processes as well as digitising them, we’ve given clinicians faster access to reliable information, reduced clinical risk and freed up time for patient care. Our partnership with InterSystems has helped us move at pace and share what works with peers across the NHS.”
ICU digitisation has been particularly impactful. Replacing a 45-page paper admissions pack, TrakCare now provides an integrated digital pathway that cuts average admission time by a third, gives simultaneous access to up-to-date records, and reduces transcription error - benefits that translate directly to more hands-on time at the bedside and more sustainable operations.
Colin Henderson, Managing Director, UK & Ireland, InterSystems, said: “North Tees has consistently shown what’s possible when technology and clinical vision align. TrakCare and the IRIS data platform have provided a reliable, scalable foundation for continuous improvement. We look forward to the next chapter working in partnership.”
