Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has become the first to roll-out InterSystems Ensemble under a model drawn up by NHS Yorkshire and the Humber.

The strategic health authority has signed a deal with CSC, the local service provider for the North, Midlands and East of England, for the provision of Ensemble to local trusts.

It has also ring-fenced funding for trusts to deploy the integration engine through a single service provider, ReStart Consulting. ReStart is providing consulting, implementation and advanced Ensemble training.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw wanted a trust integration engine to support message flows between its departmental systems and its McKesson patient administration system, using HL7 messaging.

Following a successful proof of concept, it has rolled out Ensemble across three core departmental systems; the clinical correspondence system, the theatre system and the radiology system, which also integrates to the renal system for radiology results.

Jon Aldhous, IT systems development manager at the trust, said: “Life is easier for the IT department. All interfacing can be controlled from one central place – the IT department knows before the user, if there is a problem and can take immediate action so that usability is not affected.”

Another benefit is that staff only need to enter patient information into one system, as it is now securely duplicated into the PAS.

The trust intends to roll out the system out to pathology, order communications, maternity and pharmacy and hopes to develop interfaces to all of its hospital systems within 24 months.

Alan Baker, assistant chief information officer at NHS Yorkshire and Humber, said: “What Doncaster and Bassetlaw has achieved in such a short space of time is truly remarkable.

“We hope to use this trust’s achievements as a blueprint for the implementation of Ensemble across other trusts.”

Sponsored features: InterSystems and ReStart have highlighted their work in Yorkshire and the Humber in recent sponsored features. The ReStart sponsored feature includes a case study on the deployment at Doncaster and Bassetlaw.

Links: 

InterSystems

ReStart Consulting