Gateshead confirms Medway go-live

Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with its Medway electronic patient record system.

The first phase of the deployment went live on Sunday, and the system has now been implemented across all of the trust’s hospitals.

This includes the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Dunston Hill Day Hospital, and Bensham Hospital in Gateshead.

Director of finance and information Jon Connolly said around 500,000 records were migrated from the trust’s Barwick patient administration system and Symphony A&E system over night from Saturday to Sunday.

“The Accident and Emergency departments went live on Sunday afternoon, followed by the roll-out to the wards and remaining departments, ready for outpatients to start work on Monday morning,” he said. “There was no reduction in hospital activity over this period."

A seven-year contract for the new system – supplied by System C, a McKesson Company – was awarded in May last year.

Former director of finance and information Lynne Hodgson told eHealth Insider at the time that staff really liked the “modern look and feel of the software, and the fact that it is clearly designed to meet NHS requirements.”

The Medway modules that have been implemented include a Master Patient Index, A&E, inpatients, outpatients, day care and case note tracking, all provided with an integrated data warehouse and reporting tool.

Integration with existing systems at the trust is provided through the Medway Connect integration platform and portal.

This delivers integrated messaging, providing clinicians with a single view and update service for the trust-wide patient record.

The trust had planned to go live with Medway in the last weekend of June, but had to put that date back while it implemented an upgraded version of the Sunquest ICE order communications and results reporting solution.

Gateshead Health employs 3,300 people and has an annual income of £180m. Medway will be used by around 2,500 of its clinical and administrative staff.