Publish date: 17 June 2022

Following Mersey Care’s acquisition of North West Boroughs, a programme of work  has been underway to review the digital systems in use across the Trust and to consolidate, where there are multiple versions of the same system in use.  

As part of this work, a date has now been scheduled for the merge of Mersey Care’s separate instances of Rio, which is the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system used by the Trust for mental health services and some community services.  

Merging the separate instances of this system will deliver multiple benefits but most importantly will support better clinical decision making and improved patient safety through access to a broader and combined set of records – delivering a single system for the population we serve.  

The system merge is planned to take place during the course of the weekend commencing from 6pm on Friday 8 July 2022, during which time Rio will be unavailable for use and business continuity procedures will need to be followed.  

A significant amount of work is underway, involving the respective Divisional Senior Leadership Teams, in preparation for the system merge and further information will be shared with you shortly including: 

  • Planned system downtime 
  • Guidance on the business continuity arrangements in place to support you during the system downtime
  • Guidance on the minor changes to expect from the new merged instance of Rio  

Please look out for further updates which will be circulated from the IT Service Desk and through Trust communication channels.

We thank you in advance for your support.