Southern Health takes RiO EPR

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has chosen Servelec Healthcare as a preferred bidder to implement its RiO electornic patient record system.

The trust is part of thirty community and mental health trusts in London and the South, which launched a joint procurement in June 2012 to establish an IT framework agreement worth up to £300m over four years.

Southern Health will replace its RiO contract, which was delivered by BT under the National Programme for IT, with a newer version of the system.

The trust is among the first on the framework to choose a supplier, following West London Mental Health Trust which also chose RiO as its replacement system.

Southern Health is aiming for a spring 2015 go-live of the EPR across the trust.

Dr Mark Roberts, the trust’s chief clinical information officer, said that he hopes this will open up for more integrated working with GPs and social care.

““Naturally, replacing RiO is just the first step of our journey to truly integrated digital care records for our patients so interoperability was a very important part of our selection criteria when choosing our new electronic patient record system,” he said.

“We can now really drive ahead with our integration agenda, in partnership with Servelec.”

Ten suppliers are on the new framework to supply EPRs, hosting and clinical portals to the trusts, which need to replace their systems before their national contracts expire in October 2015.

The framework is split into three lots with nine suppliers. 1. the application; 2. hosting services; and 3. integration, interoperability, reporting and portal services.

Advanced Health and Care, BT, Civica, Servelec, Emis and McKesson are each on the framework for all three lots.

CSC is on for lots two and three, Capita is on for lot two, QuickSilva is on for lot three and TPP is on for lots one and two.

Lisa Franklin, director of information and technology at the trust said it has been a “tough selection process” but that great technical and clinical support from across the trust had made the evaluation easier.