IQ Systems, which manufactures patient administration has signed a five-year software supply contract with Mercury Health, an organisation that runs a number of independent treatment units for NHS trusts.
The deal, which guarantees revenues to Mercury Health of £214m, will mean that IQ Systems’ IQUtopia PAS system will be put in place in independent sector treatment centres in Sussex, Portsmouth, Medway, Wycombe and Havant.
The software is “a patient management system which also provides resource-based scheduling," Gary Davies, Sales Director of IQ Systems, told E-Health Insider. The software is also designed to work with the National Programme for IT’s (NPfIT) patient demographics system, which contains a central database of patient addresses and details that can be accessed to keep information held about a patient up-to-date.
Peter Martin, chief executive of Mercury Health, said: “IQUtopia was thoroughly reviewed against other health care products and it was agreed that IQUtopia was by far the most cost-effective solution."
According to IQ Systems’ website, the IQUtopia software was named after Thomas Moore’s Utopia, written in 1516, which says: "These hospitals are so well run, so well supplied with all types of medical equipment, the nurses are so sympathetic and conscientious, and there are so many experienced doctors constantly available, that…practically everyone would rather be ill in hospital than at home.