Milton Keynes University Hospital adopts Oracle Health to help reduce waiting times
Milton Keynes University Hospital digitises preoperative assessment to help decrease surgery waiting times and minimise documentation.
“This project with Oracle Health has enabled us to redesign our patient journeys and workflows to enhance clinical decision-making and improve the patient experience. There’s so much potential for transformation underpinned by data and this is just the start of unlocking even more benefits from our EPR.”
Business challenges
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (MKUH) provides acute and specialist services to people in the Milton Keynes area, about 50 miles north of London. The Preoperative Assessment (POA) service at MKUH, integrated with Oracle Health EHR, supports patients undergoing elective surgery across a range of specialties. The organisation was eager to remove paper-based processes to improve communication among care teams while also increasing clarity for patients. Building on its existing EHR foundation, the organisation developed a digital preoperative assessment tool that automatically sends questionnaires via the patient portal to be completed ahead of preoperative appointments. About 86% of patients completed the questionnaire prior to their appointment, allowing staff to direct patients to the most appropriate clinic resource and making the most efficient use of the clinic team.1 This increase in information sharing throughout the preoperative process allowed MKUH to expand the number of patients who were ready for surgery. After implementing the digital POA tool, the hospital increased the number of patients who could receive surgery within three months of waitlisting from 17% to 37%.2
1 Data pulled from Pre-operative Assessment (POA) management report comparing 29/7/2024 to 25/2/2025.
2 Data Pre-operative Assessment (POA) management report comparing 1/3/2024 – 29/6/2024 (date surgery waitlisted) to 29/7/2024 – 31/10/2024 (date surgery waitlisted).