UK IT firm Misys plc has signed its largest ever healthcare contract – in a deal to supply an enterprise-wide laboratory information system to Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS), the second largest public health system in the United States.

With an initial value of $17.7 million, the contract will see Misys Healthcare Systems supplying seven DHS hospital sites with a suite of systems, including the Misys Laboratory information system, Clinical Event Manager, a clinical alerting and decision support system.

Misys says that once implemented these systems will create a single, streamlined enterprise-wide laboratory information system, anatomic pathology and comprehensive clinical alerting system across all DHS facilities.

The company also announced the launch of Misys Healthcare Systems, which will bring together three Mysis health IT firms – Medic, HCIS and Sunquest – to create what will be in revenue terms one of the top five healthcare IT companies in the US.

The company’s three business units will build on past experience and focus on physician systems, providing solutions for practice management, mobile solutions and electronic medical records; hospital systems, providing laboratory, radiology and pharmacy systems; and homecare systems.

Tom Skelton, CEO Misys Healthcare Systems. "Our three units will continue to deliver the solutions and services that our customers have come to expect – those that free healthcare professionals to focus on their patients’ health, not their IT systems."

Misys Healthcare Systems will serve a well-established customer base with 85,000 physicians, 1,200 hospitals, 850 homecare providers and hundreds of laboratories, clinics, managed services organisations and other related organisations using Misys products and services.