Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust has signed up for a chemotherapy prescribing solution which will operate across three sites and provide the foundations, if required, for deployment across the entire Northern Cancer Network.
CliniSys Solutions has won the contract with its ChemoCare chemotherapy prescribing solution – a multi pharmacy application for adults, haematology and paediatrics.
Dr Trevor Roberts, consultant clinical oncologist and assistant medical director (cancer services), said: “The trust chose ChemoCare as its cytotoxic prescribing system because it is able to cope with the demands of a large, tertiary referral centre with many and complex regimens for adult solid tumours, haematological malignancies and paediatric cancers.
“It offers us the prospect of increased safety, compliance with agreed protocols and, ultimately to network with cancer units within our region.”
The procurement was initiated to provide the trust with a robust technology solution to replace the existing paper-based system. CliniSys’ announcement of the contract win says that the manual system had a significant impact upon clinical resource and an inherent impact upon patient safety.
It says: “The formal procurement process took place over four months with the final selection of ChemoCare being made because of the solutions unique ability to meet the trust’s specification for paediatric chemotherapy prescribing.”
The CliniSys solution for paediatric oncology has been developed in conjunction with the UK Children’s Cancer Study Group.
CliniSys says the new system will allow clinicians to review and prescribe for patients from anywhere within the Newcastle network and potentially anywhere within the wider Northern Cancer Network which stretches from the Scottish border to Teesside.
It will support the trust’s implementation of the NHS Cancer Plan and provide in excess of 200 disease based protocols to significantly reduce the timescale to deliver tangible benefits for both healthcare professionals and patients.
David Newell, CliniSys group business development director, said: “The decision to select CliniSys was made on the basis of our unique ability to support paediatrics in addition to adult and haematology prescribing. The implementation fully supports the trust’s objective of providing first class cancer services to its patients."
He told E-Health Insider: "At the moment ChemoCare is being delivered compliant with legacy applications. It’s integrated with what’s on the ground using appropriate standards – HL7 where possible."
Newcastle is the 41st site in England to sign up for ChemoCare. All chemotherapy providers in England are required, under the Cancer Plan, to switch to an electronic system by the end of 2006.
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