Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust has chosen System C as its supplier for order communications and electronic prescribing, as key elements of a new electronic patient record system.
System C will supply the trust with components of its updated Medway Clinical product.
Although no official confirmation has yet been made, and the trust says the procurement has yet to be completed, E-Health Insider understands System C has been selected following an OJEU procurement. The company was selected ahead of three other short-listed suppliers: iSoft, Cerner and Alert.
The trust told EHI that no procurement decision had yet been made “we are still in the procurement process and are unable to comment further”. System C declined to offer any comment.
But if EHI’s information is accurate, Royal Devon and Exeter’s decision comes at a critical stage in the Additional Supply Capability and Capacity (ASCC) acute southern procurement, now approaching final stages. Last month short-listed suppliers were invited to provide final indicative pricing and contract awards are expected within 6-8 weeks.
All the suppliers shortlisted at RDE are understood to be short-listed as part of the ASCC acute procurement now reaching its final stages, and expected to award contracts following the general election.
The deal has particular importance in the south as Royal Exeter is one of a clutch of seven EDS Swift sites in the South West. First installed in 1986 the ageing PAS system, now approaching a quarter century, is redundant and no connection to any potential supplier.
EHI understands that EDS, now owned by HP, has been working closely with Alert, and had hoped the trust might provide a test bed for demonstrating Alert as an upgrade route for the ageing Swift sites.
In December 2009 Royal Exeter went out to OJEU tender for the “first elements of a tactical electronic patient record” with the vision of implementing a full EPR by 2014.
The following February the trust told EHI that while supportive of NPfIT it had decided it needed to go out to procure new systems as it needed to be confident in delivery timetables. “The trust needed to deliver key clinical and financial objectives within a known timeframe…”
The new contract was advertised as being for seven years, and for an EPR able to achieve “technical and functional compliance with the hardware and software provided under NPfIT”.
The tender notice issued said the trust was looking for EPR functionality, incorporating order communications system, electronic prescribing, patient administration system, coded clinical documentation, scheduling for beds, theatres and test through a common patient view.
At the time the trust said that it aimed to have contract signed by the end of April , pilot locations up and running by mid-summer and roll out order communications and diagnostic tests trust wide by October.
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