The George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust has gone live with iSoft’s iPM patient administration system from local service provider Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).
The trust switched on the system on Monday 8 October after spending the weekend moving over from their previous legacy system. The system includes an Accident and Emergency module.
CSC says the trust is the first to have a PAS delivered under the new National Programme for IT Local Ownership Programme (NLOP).
Chris Bradshaw, the director responsible for the project at the trust said: “We are asking people to please be patient should any problems arise during these few days.
“This is the first step towards the development of improved IT systems which will help with upcoming improvements including filmless radiology and direct booking of appointments from GPs’ surgeries.”
The go-live is CSC’s fifteenth hospital PAS implementation in the North, Midlands and East Programme for IT.
Barry Orr, account director for the West Midlands SHA at CSC, told E-Health Insider: “We can confirm that the iPM system went live successfully across the George Eliot trust this weekend. This means that in the Warwickshire area, we now have Warwickshire PCT, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, South Warwickshire General Hospitals and now the George Eliot are now live with the iPM system successfully.
"This will eventually help to bring people fully integrated care, in line with the aims of the National Programme for IT.”
As part of NLOP, the West Midlands SHA, responsible for the trust, has taken control of planning deployments in the region.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust is scheduled to be the next to go live next week. George Eliot was the first that they have organised themselves as part of a ‘high level deployment plan for the next nine months’.
West Midlands SHA is one of the most advanced parts of the country on the national programme with iPM systems already in place in most of the hospital trusts within their area.
The SHA is planning the implementation of the new PAS upgrades for installed systems, which will include the functionality for 18 week wait. This has to be implemented in the period from the end of October to the end of December.
Once all systems are in place, the SHA says it will commission a formal piece of work, backed by research evidence, which will include mapping new functionality to benefits as well as the extent to which the full utilisation of new features will avoid costs that are related to patient safety errors and duplication of information.
The trust says that early indications are that the switchover has so far been ‘extremely successful’.
In a note in the trust’s staff newsletter, Martin Judkins, chief information officer at West Midlands SHA said: “It’s impossible to underestimate the fundamental enormity of PAS replacement in an acute hospital. It’s a major achievement – well done and thanks.”
Bradshaw added: “I would like to thank everyone for their hard work and commitment during a long and sometimes frustrating project. Inevitably its taken time for everyone to get used to the new system and a lot of support is being made available in order to help users.”
During data migration, from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 October all patient information was manually recorded and then separately entered onto the new system.
The trust has used local media to ask patients and visitors to the hospital to be understanding as they implement a new computer system. Bradshaw said: “Processes may continue to be slightly slower as colleagues get used to the new system. We thank everyone for their help and patience at this time.”
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