Smart Healthcare: Dealpulse | SmartHealthcare.com

NHS Scotland cuts costs with procurement software

Thu, 27 May 2010 23:05:00 GMT

The health service in Scotland reckons to have saved £1.6m last year through using barcoding and procurement software in hospitals

NHS Scotland said that use of the system generated financial savings, as well as cutting time spent counting and checking up on orders, on administration, requisition and physical stock checks.

All Scottish hospitals have issued ward product managers with barcode scanners to check stock levels. The managers enter the information gleaned into the Powergate electronic procurement system.

The system then calculates how much stock is needed, based on historical data, and automatically orders new goods.

When an order if finalised, it is sent to the national procurement distribution centre in Lanarkshire, where it is packed and sent.

Colin Sinclair, director of national procurement, said: "The ward product manager system takes out the guesswork and the legwork for front line staff. By using barcode technology in a simple and smarter way, we can free up time for nurses and other staff, so they can get on with what they do best – patient care."

Overall, NHS Scotland claims to have made savings of £23m last year through better procurement and delivery of NHS resources.

Lancashire Hospitals plans patient record scanning

Wed, 19 May 2010 10:36:07 GMT

An acute trust in the north west is planning to spend £3m on scanning patient records into an electronic document record management system

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it intends to purchase the system to store, index, manage and rapidly retrieve scanned documents and other unstructured information which make up the patient record.

In a tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union on 19 May 2010, it said that it will also create a clinical portal through which all patient information can be viewed. There will also be potential to create electronic forms and workflow to manage administrative processes.

The trust says that the programme aims to ensure that "all patient information is accessible by those who need to see it, wherever and whenever they need to see it".

The main places for delivery of the new system are the Royal Preston Hospital and Chorley and South Ribble District General Hospital.

Greater Glasgow signs £1m deal with Emis

Fri, 14 May 2010 08:52:29 GMT

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has signed a contract with Emis to replace software in 243 GP practices

The £1m deployment of Emis software by the health board is expected to start this summer and be completed during 2011.

The move is part of NHS Scotland's eHealth Strategy for 2008-11 to replace the GPass system currently used by nearly 700 GP practices across Scotland.

Glasgow and Clyde is Scotland's largest health board with 269 GP
practices, of which 243 use GPass.

Emis was one of two companies selected by NHS National Services Scotland in January 2010 as a preferred bidder and over the past few months it has undergone a tendering process with the health boards.

Prior to this, 51 GP practices in Ayrshire and Arran Health Board had chosen Emis to replace its existing software.

Northumbria integrates its patient data

Thu, 13 May 2010 10:20:16 GMT

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has contracted with Orion Health to knit together its clinical records

The north eastern acute trust is implementing a two phase clinical integration plan covering its 10 hospitals on 17 sites.

The project began in October 2009 and is due for completion in the summer. Under the first phase, the trust was provided with an integrated information system. Orion also supplied its Enterprise Master Patient Index product for data cleansing and protection.

The second phase will involve the introduction of software to give clinicians access to complete patient records across the trust.

Bob Telford, deputy director of finance at Northumbria, said the new system works with existing applications, making it a "very cost effective and time efficient way of upgrading our systems".

"This will streamline our Electronic Patient Record; when something works well, staff engage with it more and use it properly," he added. "This solution will help us move away from paper based records in an effective way that will also benefit patients."

He added that the phased approach will ensure that the first element of the programme is working effectively before embarking on the next stage.

Lancashire trusts sign £9m network deal

Tue, 11 May 2010 10:03:46 GMT

Seven healthcare trusts across Lancashire have signed a collaborative network contract, including support for mobile working, with Virgin Media Business

The £9m deal will connect 170 healthcare sites including those at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Blackburn with Darwen, NHS East Lancashire, East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, NHS Central Lancashire, NHS North Lancashire and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust. A number of other trusts within the area are also considering joining the contract.

The trusts hope the high speed network will help staff benefit from mobile working. The deal will also include a bespoke service desk to provide a single point of contact for the healthcare community.

Associate director of IM&T at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust Declan Hadley told SmartHealthcare.com that the network is currently being implemented. "At the moment Virgin is putting fibre optics in the ground," he said.

He said it was likely that the full installation would take six to eight months and would be "fully operational everywhere by Christmas".

Hadley also revealed that the trusts are in the early stages of exploring the possibility of a single telephony system, which would be based "inside a Virgin Media cloud".

He said that the trusts also envisage having a completely integrated public sector network in the near future. He said it would enable local government to have points of connectivity, going one step further than the current community interest network (Coin).

"By working together, Lancashire's healthcare community has addressed affordability issues to provide the most innovative and agile technology solutions available to significantly improve our patient services," Hadley added.

The project includes the delivery of wireless, local area network, voice, remote access service and mobile services. The network will connect hospital sites, health centres, clinics and surgeries, mental health and social care departments, prisons and other NHS sites.

NHS Greater Glasgow signs deal with Capita

Mon, 10 May 2010 13:36:04 GMT

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has awarded Capita a £1.3m contract for the provision of a fibre optic network connection

Capita will provide the health board with metropolitan fibre optic connectivity "to enable high speed data services between multiple sites", according to a notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 5 May 2010.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has said the implementation of the services will be delivered in a "three to four month timescale with minimum infrastructure disruption". The deal also includes related maintenance services.

McKesson converts Paragon software for NHS

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:38:18 GMT

Several health IT vendors have used HC2010 to announce new products, pilots and partnerships, including Orion, Carefx, System C and Hytec

McKesson said on 27 April 2010 that it will launch a UK version of its Paragon hospital information system, a modular suite it already offers in the US covering clinical, patient and administrative functions.

Adrian Wookey, the firm's UK vice-president of service delivery, said the system would be "fully optimised" for NHS use, including development work to ensure compliance with the National Programme for IT's Spine system. "We are confident that compared to other systems coming to the market, McKesson's will be the most cost-effective solution available and will deliver the functionality that is required by our customers today," he said.

The Department of Health recently awarded McKesson a £36m four year deal to support existing implementations of its Totalcare and Star software packages in 26 trusts across England. It also provides services to all trusts in England and Wales, through running the NHS's shared HR and payroll service.

Orion Health, whose Concerto software is being piloted in Northern Ireland's health and social care trusts, said it was launching a software as a service (Saas) product at the show, to help trusts deal with decreasing budgets. No further information was immediately available.

Carefx said it is working with Cambridge University Hospitals Trust on a six month pilot of a system to check if a requested test has already been carried out recently, initially for blood tests. A clinician requesting such a test will be told if there is a recent result available, and asked if they still want to order a new one.

"This pilot will demonstrate the viability of using decision support in this way to help improve patient care, as well as reducing the number of pathology test requests across the trust," said Dianne Nixon, head of strategic systems at the trust.

Carefx has recently announced a partnership with NHS local service provider CSC to provide systems including a clinical information portal using the vendor's Fusionfx software.

System C used the show to launch integrated digital pen technology for its Medway suite of clinical software, initially for the maternity module. This lets midwives complete assessments using the technology in the community. The firm is working in association with Destiny, a provider of digital pens.

Hytec said it is launching a system to allow trusts to share information securely across the NHS N3 broadband network, including secure, authenticated remote access for GPs.

Ipswich digital records will wait for wireless

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:39:32 GMT

An East Anglian hospital is planning to use both paper and electronic records for the next few years, until it has wireless networks in all its wards

The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust has decided to run a new electronic document management system (EDMS) alongside its physical patient records, rather than trying to remove paper from wards.

Some trusts, such as St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals, have moved to scanning paper records into an EDMS before they are next needed for scheduled care, so many clinicians use digital records most or all of the time.

But Neil Turnbull, head of programme delivery at Ipswich's IM&T department, said there was little point in doing this before it has wireless networks and devices on all wards, something it is in the process of implementing, although this will take several years. He said that as the trust moves through the project "the balance will shift" from paper to electronic records.

Ipswich Hospital has about 500,000 paper patient records, some containing thousands of pages. It has scanned 20,000 paper records using its new EDMS, introduced at the end of 2009, and new records are in digital rather than paper form.

Turnbull said that no paper files have been destroyed as a result of them being scanned, but that this will start if the system is successfully introduced during this year. "The project was designed to mitigate our problems with physical case notes on site," he said, particularly in making them available promptly to clinicians. "That was becoming increasingly difficult – we're a 45 acre site, and half a million notes takes up a lot of space."

The hospital is the first user of the Evolve EDMS system from Kainos and Autonomy, which the two firms launched on 22 April 2010. Turnbull said it had originally expected to buy a system off the shelf. "But we soon found such a thing didn't exist," he said, with Kainos instead offering the new system incorporating Autonomy's software as part of the procurement, which it won in November 2009.

Turnbull said that Autonomy, a UK firm whose software is used to find patterns in large amounts of unstructured data, provides the document management element of the system. Clinicians using the system can search for patient notes through their hospital number, NHS number, name or other demographic details.

He added that clinicians are pleased with the new system. "The engagement with clinicians has been excellent. We've been able to tweak the system to make it more user friendly."

A particular advantage is the way it generates discharge summaries for patients leaving the hospital, Turnbull said. These are filled in automatically as the patient is treated, using a link to the trust's iSoft IPM patient administration software, and all that needs to be added on discharge is the medicines taken by the patient.

Within 24 hours discharge summaries are sent to GPs, meeting a target set by Suffolk primary care trust. Turnbull said a few GPs are accepting them by secure email, but most are printed daily by the hospital, then delivered to GPs using the same delivery service that collects samples. It hopes to move all GPs to secure email, however.

DoH ends Lorenzo northern monopoly

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:09:19 GMT

The Department of Health released details of its deal to provide a group of hospital trusts with an alternative patient administration system

It has confirmed that a £36m, four year contract signed with McKesson would cover some trusts in the North, Midlands and East of England (NME) area, which have been previously committed to take iSoft's Lorenzo suite.

In response to a Freedom of Information request from SmartHealthcare.com, the DoH said that of the 26 trusts retaining McKesson's Totalcare system under the deal, 18 are in the NME area. This is served by NHS Connecting for Health's local service provider CSC, which had planned to provide only iSoft's Lorenzo software suite to trusts.

The 18 NME trusts comprise that are 13 foundations, which have greater power over what software they use, and five that would not have the autonomy to choose their own systems.

Of the other trusts covered, six are in London, while two are in the south of England. The government had already announced that some trusts in these areas would use alternative systems, but had not done so for the NME region.

The department announced the deal with McKesson on 14 April 2010, but did not initially release the regions or names of the trusts.

CSC responded with a statement suggesting that it still views Lorenzo as the long term solution. A company spokesperson commented: "The McKesson contract extension is intended to provide support to trusts with existing McKesson systems for up to four years. CSC remains confident that trusts will continue to view Lorenzo Regional Care as the best long term solution."

Kable's senior health analyst Victor Almeida said the move represented a recognition that the NME region's trusts need more choice of suppliers. "Lorenzo – iSoft's software suite – is the only Care Records Service package offered to these trusts and it allows for limited retrospective compatibility. This means that health organisations may find it difficult to reconcile the NPfIT package with their existing systems and end up having to 'rip and replace' some of them.

"Increased supplier choice is an inevitable step in the right direction, which many - including Kable - have been anticipating for some time. McKesson is a very strong player in the health industry, with experience implementing electronic health record in the USA and the Electronic Staff Service to the NHS in England," he added.

"Other vendors will probably follow suit - and this will not be confined to large American players like McKesson and CSC. Smaller local vendors like Agilisys, Amicus ITS and Synetrix will also play a role in the roll out of patient administration systems, care record services and various other software applications, which are crucial to the modernisation of the NHS."

The 26 trusts covered will all retain McKesson's Totalcare software. The NME non-foundation trusts covered are United Lincolnshire Hospitals, Nottingham University Hospitals, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals and Walsall Hospitals.

The NME foundation trusts covered by the deal are Derby Hospitals, Chesterfield Royal Hospitals, Sherwood Forest Hospitals, Colchester Hospital University, Southend University Hospital, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals, Northumbria Healthcare, Rotherham, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Barnsley Hospital, Sheffield Children's and Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals.

The London users of Totalcare covered by the deal are North Middlesex University Hospital, Whipps Cross University Hospital, Whittington Hospital, Barking Havering and Redbridge Hospitals, Ealing Hospital and South London Healthcare. The deal also covers Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals and Medway Foundation in the south.

The department also said that three of the trusts will also continue to use McKesson's Star software: South London Healthcare, Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals and Walsall Hospitals.

Sussex Partnership may adopt Lorenzo

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:09:28 GMT

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has signed a five year contract renewal with iSoft that includes the option of becoming an early adopter of Lorenzo

Sussex has said that over the next six months it will consider the implementation of iSoft's Lorenzo patient management system independently of the NHS National programme for IT.

It said this is an option of the deal with the company.

The trust's director of information management and technology Jane Rennie said: "We have an advanced set of functionality and want to maintain the momentum by proactively developing our trust IT strategy. iSoft has a clear product development pathway with Lorenzo being the natural progression."

Rennie acknowledged that traditionally community and mental health trusts use only 30% to 40% of the patient administration system (PAS) functions available.

"We need to 'sweat the assets' and get all we can from the PAS to ensure we make the most of our investment," she added.

The trust has said it believes Lorenzo is an ideal platform for aiding mobile working, which it considers a priority. Sussex has outlined plans to assess whether Lorenzo fits with the needs of all its staff across 120 sites.

Sussex Partnership is one of the UK's largest mental health trusts and serves 1.5m people.

26 trusts will keep McKesson, agrees CfH

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:19:34 GMT

NHS Connecting for Health has signed a £36m deal with a firm outside NPfIT to provide support for some trusts' patient administration systems

The four year contract with McKesson will enable the 26 NHS trusts in England to continue using existing implementations of its software.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health told SmartHealthcare.com: "An agreement which aims to provide trusts with the flexibility they want for managing their information priorities has been reached with McKesson.

"The agreement, which was signed on 31 March 2010, provides support for 26 NHS hospital trusts to continue to use their existing McKesson patient administration systems for the next four years."

McKesson already provides products and services to some 90% of NHS organisations and runs the integrated HR and payroll system for the NHS in England and Wales.

It was not one of the firms chosen to supply the National Programme for IT, which originally planned to replace all existing patient administration systems with new software.

However, the McKesson deal follows one between NHS London and BT signed two weeks ago, which means that some acute trusts in the capital will keep their existing systems, rather than getting new Cerner Millennium software.

Connecting for Health declined to name the 26 trusts, or where they are located.

Victor Almeida, senior analyst at Kable, said: "It is impossible to address the impact that this will have on NPfIT without knowing where these trusts are.

"If these 26 organisations are based in the north, there is a clear indication that CSC is beginning to open up and offer trusts more flexibility, which they have not done up until now. It could also represent a large fissure or even the termination of its NPfIT contract, as has been long speculated.

"If these trusts are solely located in London and the south, this does not represent a massive change of direction, as these trusts have already been offered more supplier choice."

NHS London reveals BT work downsizing

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:40:16 GMT

The comprehensive IT system originally promised by the NHS National Programme (NPfIT) for IT is 'no longer possible' under a new deal, according to the capital's healthcare boss

A new agreement BT and NHS London, signed on 1 April, removed £112m from the £1bn cost of delivering NPfIT systems. The Department of Health said this would mean some acute trusts would continue to use existing systems, rather than move to Cerner's Millennium suite of software as originally planned.

A letter from NHS London chief executive Ruth Carnall to health service staff involved in the London Programme for IT reveals that the renegotiation, known as Change Control Note 3, has also meant that BT will no longer provide systems for ambulances or GPs, with the latter now served through the GP Systems of Choice programme. The Map of Medicine system will only be licensed for a further 12 months, and the expansion of CSE's RiO software will also be curtailed.

"It will no longer be possible to provide the comprehensive solution that was anticipated in 2003," writes Carnall. "Cerner and RiO will now not be available to all organisations."

She concedes that for some trusts this will be welcome news: "I know that for some trusts a solution delivered through the programme was not the preferred route, but for others it will mean a rethink of their strategy."

Carnall points out that London already has 50,000 users of RiO, which has been implemented across mental health trusts and for which the capital will get two future software releases and regular new configurations. It also has 25,000 users of Cerner Millennium. "Despite the many challenges this puts us well ahead of the rest of the country," she writes.

"We now have a firm commercial basis for the new delivery model for Cerner," Carnall continues. "This was developed following the challenges faced at the Royal Free, which have been used to successfully roll Cerner out at both Kingston and St George's. This means that we have more flexibility to deliver a locally tailored solution that will meet the needs of the clinicians on the ground."

Richard Bacon, a Conservative member of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, told The Guardian: "It is inconceivable that this can represent value for money for the taxpayer. The government are buying themselves out of jail, winning a little bit of time, and using an enormous amount of taxpayers' money to do it."

BT to install Cerner at three southern trusts

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:00:41 GMT

The Department for Health has confirmed that three acute trusts in Bath, Bristol and Oxford have signed a deal with BT to install Cerner Millennium

North Bristol NHS Trust, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Trust will take the software as part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

A DoH spokesperson told SmartHealthcare.com that the deal was part of the £546m contract awarded to BT by the department in June 2009, which solely concerns BT's work in the south of England.

The spokesperson said the new deal was outlined in the contract extension it agreed with BT last year. "As well as taking over from Fujitsu, it was agreed that BT would also provide additional services at greenfield sites," the spokesperson said.

BT to cut NPfIT charges by £112m

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:14:55 GMT

Some London hospitals will connect existing IT to national systems, under a new agreement between the capital's local service provider and the government

BT, which installed Cerner Millennium software at Kingston Hospital by a deadline of end of November, said it has agreed to update its local service provider contract, providing "a revised, more flexible approach to the delivery of clinical solutions.

"BT is confident that this will meet the evolving needs of the NHS in London and provide trusts with the flexibility to satisfy their individual requirements, while also helping to contribute to the NHS National Programme for Information Technology's cost savings, through the modification of requirements," the firm added on 1 April 2010.

The Department of Health said these modifications will save £112m, with BT handling fewer new implementations. Instead, where hospitals have fit for purpose IT already in place, this will be connected to national systems.

The news comes as CSC missed its deadline to implement iSoft's Lorenzo software at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust.

CSC misses Morecambe Bay Lorenzo deadline

Scotland to spend extra £4m on telecare

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:50:16 GMT

The Scottish government will grant all 32 local council and health board partnerships £120,000 for telecare

The £4m funding represents total spending of £20m on the Telecare Development Programme since August 2006, according to government figures. The local bodies will receive the money as long as they agree to spend at least as much of their own money on such systems.

The move follows a report from the Scottish Parliament recommending that telehealth technology should be used across the country rather than just a few areas.

Public health minister Shona Robison said that the government expects its older population to rise by 62% over the next two decades, adding that "investing in telecare is vital if we are to remain ahead of the game".

"More than 25,000 older Scots have already benefited from telecare as part of £16m invested since 2006," she added. "This extra £4m investment means we, and our NHS and council partners, can help a further 13,000 people to receive telecare. As well as helping older people retain their independence at home, that will also help avoid an estimated 21,000 more hospital admission days."

During 2010-11, local area partnerships will be encouraged to use telecare to support improvements in falls prevention and the management of long term conditions including chronic heart failure and dementia.

Separately, Scotland has publicly launched a new £44m IT system. The government hopes that the patient management system, reported on by Smarthealthcare.com in February, will "pave the way for a paper-free NHS".

Six NHS boards across Scotland have signed up to the system so far, covering 70% of the country's population. The remaining boards are set to join in the coming months.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "This new system will be much more efficient, faster and more secure than outdated paper-based systems. It also frees up money to be spent on front-line services and is better for environment."