Ordercomms SME

Princess Alexandra Hospital; Harlow; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust in the UK seeks a Senior Application Support Analyst to supervise the Ordercomms team, manage ITSM queues, and ensure data quality and security across EHR systems. You will work within the ICT department, reporting to the Application Support Manager and collaborating with suppliers and clinical staff.

You will lead improvements to ordercomms and related systems, develop training materials, and ensure adherence to RBAC and security policies while

Qualifications

• Experienced senior Application Support Analyst in a healthcare ICT environment.
• Knowledge of ITSM processes, incident, problem and change management.
• Ability to manage data quality and security across EHR systems.

Responsibilities

• Supervise the Ordercomms Support Team and deputise for the Systems Manager.
• Build and test diagnostic orders on the ICT system as requested.
• Maintain security and access controls for the EHR environment in line with policies.
• Manage ITSM queue and ensure SLAs are met for incidents and changes.
• Coordinate with suppliers to resolve support queries and track progress.
• Develop training materials for users and update documentation.

Skills

ITIL processes

IT Service Management

Data quality management

EHR systems

System security

RBAC

Stakeholder liaison

Tools

Cerner Millennium

ICE ordercomms

Job description

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) is proud to care for the communities of West Essex, delivering safe, compassionate, and high-quality services. We are part of the Neighbourhood Wave—a national programme that’s changing how care is delivered by focusing on prevention, early support, and more joined-up services across health, social care, and the voluntary sector.

This means we’re working more closely with local partners to bring care closer to home and support people to live healthier, more independent lives.

We’re a supportive and inclusive organisation that values its people. We offer development opportunities, flexible working, and a strong focus on wellbeing. As a Disability Confident and equal opportunities employer, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and experiences.

Join us and help shape the future of care in West Essex.

Job overview

The post holder will be responsible for the day to day supervision of the Diagnostic Ordercomms systems delivering support, administration, technical management, and maintenance of the Trust’s Applications. This role is for an experienced Senior Application Support Analyst to join the Application Support Team, within the ICT department, reporting to the Application Support Manager.

A key component of the Princes Alexandra Hospital’s application estate is the Electronic Health Record (EHR). The post-holder will ensure that the functionality reflects the operational working of the Trust and local Health Economy in recording patient activity and providing a means of communication with patients. They will manage the production of information used to support commissioning activity as well as statutory information requirements and at all times ensure the integrity, security and accuracy of the data recorded.

The Ordercomms systems comprises of the Trust EPR (Cerner Millenium), and external ordercomms via ICE. The Ordercomms Support team are responsible for support and assisting in developing these systems.

The system must be maintained and made available to trained users to record patient activity in a timely and accurate manner. Correct recording of data onto these systems is fundamental for Information Governance, Patient Safety, Operational Management and Commissioning. Many of the Trust’s Performance Indicators are also dependant on the quality and completeness of the data provided from the EHR for various external NHS bodies.

The Ordercomms Support team will support additional Trust systems such as Electronic Observations, Summary Records / Portals and numerous other systems, where diagnostic orders and results are included. The post-holder will be expected to provide management, support and development of such systems in a similar fashion to the EHR system.

Main duties of the job

• Supervise the day to day operation of the Ordercomms Support Team and deputise for the Ordercomms Systems Manager when required.
• To build and test new diagnostic orders when requested / approved on the ICT system.
• Retain a detailed knowledge of the Trust applications which are supported by the Ordercomms Support team.
• Implement, adjust and adhere to IT Service Management (ITSM) e.g. ITIL based practices specifically in the areas of incident, problem, release and change management.
• Ensure the Management of the day to day duties entailing System Management, System Security and Access Control is maintained.
• Manage the ITSM application support queue (IT service desk call logging system).
• Take an active role in the Change and Problem Management processes.
• Liaise with suppliers for the turnaround and resolution of any support queries raised ensuring they are logged and tracked appropriately.
• Monitoring and ensuring data quality is in line with the Trust data quality policy.
• Discuss complex IT data/issues with other members of the ICT Department and third party support staff to identify and resolve problems.
• Develop training materials and policies in the use of the EHR and other systems for users at all levels. Keeping all documents up to date as notified by Ordercomms Systems Manager.
• Assist the Ordercomms Systems Manager in the development of Trust Policies, Processes and Systems.
• Have a working knowledge of other systems within the Trust.
• Provide specialist training to members of the IT Department and training to other staff when required.
• Assist the IT Training team in training end users in relevant applications.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Systems Management:

• To build and test new diagnostic orders when requested / approved on the ICT system.
• To manage the demand of configuration changes and assist with prioritisation.
• Monitor the system housekeeping activities and ensure timely resolution of any queries raised by the IT helpdesk that need further investigation.
• Assisting in the maintenance of security of the EHR live environment in accordance with the NHS IM&T Security Manual, the Trust’s Security/Confidentiality Policy including locally defined polices and/or procedures.
• Modify existing user security access groups based on updated policies.
• Manage access control for users.
• Initiate and monitor system audit trail events.
• Responsible for release management.
• Manage the testing and quality assurance of new system software, upgrades and patch release software for EHR and other systems.
• Work with the Application Support Team to manage and control the application support queue in the ITSM.
• Ensure that the correct call details are managed and maintained in the ITSM.
• Ensure that calls are responded to agreed Service Level Agreements.
• Work with the parameters of ITSM with regards to incident, problem and change management.
• Ensure that all changes proposed to the EHR environment are thoroughly tested before application and that any fixes are managed through robust change management processes.
• Ensure that all roles adhere to Role Based Access Control (RBAC) standards adopted by the Trust.

Incident & Problem Management:

• Be responsible for working through the Application Support ITSM queue ensuring that incidents are prioritised accurately, delegated appropriately and resolutions applied within SLA.
• To have expert knowledge of the various SLAs associated with application support.
• Be a lead expert in the resolution of application related incidents.
• To work with local clinical, non-clinical and third party suppliers in the resolution of such incidents.
• To be able to prioritise numerous incidents of varying severity and effectively manage the resolution of all incidents within the agreed service levels.
• To provide expert software configuration management for PAH applications.
• To ensure the production of procedures, planning, reporting, change control documents, audit documents and version control.
• To be pro-active in being able to decipher when a problem has occurred and ensure that it is managed under the problem management process.
• To work with the Service Management Specialist in ensuring that workarounds are implemented to the agreed standards and respective problems monitored until resolution under SLA.
• Where there is no immediate resolution available, ensure that an effective workaround is in place, communicate that to end-users, document it in the knowledge base and manage the resolution within the SLA.
• To develop and maintain a robust understanding of the systems to facilitate report writing either using add on tools or using the reporting capabilities of the application.

Change Control:

• To manage and/or provide expert software configuration management for PAH applications, to include the production of procedures, planning, reporting, change control preparation documents, audit and version control.
• To ensure that the integrity of databases is maintained at all times.
• To ensure that applications are current and continue to be configured in such a way as to meet relevant clinical, managerial and technical standards.
• Establish baseline and maintain change records of configuration of PAH applications in all instances.
• To ensure that relevant proposed changes to live applications have been tested thoroughly and documented in the test environment and signed off, prior to application in the live environment.
• Prepare and maintain local configuration procedures and training material for application support staff.
• Establish baseline and maintain configuration / change records of interface settings for the relevant applications to include – maintain records of field mappings, oversee code mappings, document message pathways between systems, keep records of variations to standard mappings, review any system release documentation for implications for interface mappings.
• To actively participate in the Change Advisory Board meetings and provide feedback when required to the application support staff.
• To support changes being applied to live environments.
• Monitor and assess the release of information standard notices and ensure any notices that need to be actioned by the department are brought to the attention of the Application Support Manager.

Assist in providing Training to system users at all levels

Assist the Trust IT Training team to deliver application training across all staff groups both internal and external to the Trust when required for major project initiatives.

• Ensure that relevant administrative functions are adhered to when training and respective systems are kept up to date to reflect end user learning.
• Explore alternative methods of training delivery with the IT training team.
• Assist the training team in the creation and maintenance of user guides for new developments and system management guides within the application team.

Monitoring and ensuring Data Quality:

• Work with the Information department to ensure that data quality standards are adhered to and where relevant, requested reports are produced in a timely fashion.
• Manage the regular update and validation of patient NHS numbers in collaboration with the DBS Tracing Service.
• Liaise with Department/Directorate Managers on improving the use of EHR or other ordercomms systems.

Participation in Processes and Systems:

• Create and update Standard Operating Procedures to ensure correct use of the system ensuring all staff groups adhere to them.
• Assist the Application Support Manager in liaison with Department/Directorate Managers in the best use of EHR for the maximum advantage of the Trust.
• Assist in the support and implementation of other Systems interfacing with ordercomms systems.
• Work closely with the Benefits Realisation or Project Manager to ensure that changes required to deliver key Trust benefits are supported within the application and are subject to the rigorous processes adopted for configuration management and code drops.
• Manage and assist system testing in relation to upgrades and system changes.
• Assist in the configuration of new systems and applications.

General and Other:

• Develop and maintain good working relationships with all system users, Department and Directorate Managers, Managers and all third party users, ensuring the aims and interest of the Trust are communicated, monitored and actioned effectively.
• Actively participate in on-going product development projects to ensure that appropriate knowledge is developed and maintained in order to be able to provide excellent application support.
• Carry out general housekeeping tasks on a daily basis in order to support and maintain existing systems and their environments.
• Identify and escalation unresolved issues to respective systems suppliers promptly, ensuring all relevant information is included.
• Provide advice and guidance to less experienced colleagues where required.
• Provide support and guidance to Trust users on data quality issues and ensure that where further training is required, this is logged and followed through.
• Develop and maintain scripts to automate procedures and routine tasks.
• Support the interfacing and integration software between the EHR application and all other business and clinical systems.
• Be responsible for the planning and organising of own workload and prioritisation following the guidance from the Application Support Manager.
• To ensure that all GP, Dentist and other records are loaded into systems in a timely and accurate manner, and ensure that any systems interfaces are also updated and that relevant mapping tables are updated in the trust integration engine.
• To represent the Application Support function at relevant meetings as and when required by the Application Support Manager.
• To be pro-active in suggesting ways in which applications can be improved upon in order to increase patient safety and/or increase efficiency.
• The listed tasks and duties are not exhaustive and the post holder could be required to carry out reasonable management requests as and when required.
• The role requires the post holder to operate in a SLA environment which at times can lead to pressure and considerable expectations; this will therefore require the ability to undertake analysis, assessment and effective judgement in order to ensure that the most effective path is undertaken to rectify a reported issue or several issues.
• Know when to escalated to senior management for information purposes, ratification or decision-making.
• Provide 1st class customer service to meet our aims of being within the top 10% of Trusts in England.
• There is a requirement for flexible working to ensure cover is maintained throughout the times set by the Trust for on premises support within the Service Level Agreement.

COMMUNICATIONS & RELATIONSHIPS

• To establish and maintain good working relationships with the Trust’s application user community, local and remote.
• To establish and maintain good working relationships with third party support companies.
• To ensure that good communication channels are maintained between yourself and in particular the EHR user community.
• Establish good working relationships and communications with the General Practitioner and Dental Practitioner Offices.