Work on eForms by the Digital Team at The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital (ROH) has been recognised with a nomination for a national award.

The NDL Community Awards celebrate the best examples of digital transformation in the public sector and NHS. The awards recognise the best use of transformational technologies with social purpose. From data migration with robotic process automation, digitising and mobilising workforces and information gathering, the 2021 awards includes five specialist categories.

NDL said they have received “a wealth of innovative automation, mobile app and eForm project entries from across our entire public sector community.
“We'd like to give our greatest thanks for all of the fantastic efforts taking place within the NDL Community over the past year - despite challenging times.”

NDL is a UK software company that works with the public sector for the public good. Its awards are designed to share best practice so that similar challenges being faced elsewhere can be overcome more easily, and to recognise the innovative use of automation and digital tools to better design and deliver public services and provide better patient care.

The Digital Team at ROH is nominated in the Driving Value category for a large-scale digital transformation programme that has already had a major impact on data management within the Trust. ROH is utilising a low code platform to quickly create a series of eForms, enabling it to simplify the collection of information and alleviate administrative pressures on its staff. The project launched with the build of a lateral flow test submission form in just two days. Rapid lateral flow tests are used to help find cases in people who may have no symptoms but are still infectious and can give the virus to others. The form enables the Trust’s 1,500 members of staff to submit their results in real time, which can then be easily shared with NHS England every three days.

Vickie Pring, Senior Web and Systems Developer at ROH said: “A key driver for our digitisation strategy has been to facilitate enhanced reporting procedures, enabling us to meet the demands of the pandemic and provide the best possible care to our patients.
“When we were told the Trust would be embarking on staff lateral flow testing, we had just a few days to digitise a process. eForms provide a cost-effective solution and an accessible format for staff to share their data whilst at home. Staff simply input their employee number to search within the database, populate and submit their test results.”

The e-Form template has since been adapted by the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) in the creation of multiple forms. Charlotte Tattam, Business Data Analyst at ROH, led this project, assisting the department in creating an easy, paperless process that is completed by patients following their visit to the hospital.  

She said: “We needed to create an e-Form which was easy for patients to use. Once patients have completed the form and provided valuable feedback this is shared with the PALS Team and the care providers.  
“Our goal from the beginning was to reduce the use of paper and allow patients to provide vital feedback in a quick and efficient manner. The process also saves the team hours of manual data input whilst also ensuring anonymity for those submitting their experiences with the Trust.” 

(Above: an example of the forms created by the ROH Digital Team) 

ROH uses a suite of transformational technology provided by NDL. Since the Trust began using FX, NDL’s eForms platform, it has been inundated with requests to support other departments. One of the future projects in the pipeline includes a staff feedback form, enabling staff and patients to give direct feedback to a member of staff, which will be automatically shared to boost staff morale.

On the shortlisting, Gavin Newman, Digital Programme Manager at ROH said: “We are absolutely delighted to be nominated for an award. The Digital Team was formed late in 2020 and one of our first projects was learning how to use the NDL software and working towards our goal of becoming paper-free. We now have a team of three who are regularly improving and replacing paper processes with electronic forms and process automation. 
"To be shortlisted alongside other NHS organisations and public sector services is an honour. Our team is going from strength to strength and we hope we can continue to build on our success.” 

The winners will be announced at a virtual awards ceremony on 25 November at 12:00. Each winner will receive a prize package, including a £500 contribution to a charity of their choice. You can register to watch the ceremony here.