New Staffs trust extends System C use

The newly formed University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust has chosen System C’s Medway electronic patient record system to implement across the trust while retaining an in-house clinical portal.

The trust was formed on 1 November, following the merger of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, and now operates two major hospitals with A&E departments and more than 9,000 staff.

The five-year contract with System C includes the Medway patient administration system and integrated clinical modules for order communications, clinical noting, business intelligence and results reporting. It also supports integration with a number of internal systems, including clinical systems developed by the trust’s internal teams.

Mid Staffordshire was already using the Medway EPR at its County Hospital, formerly known as Stafford Hospital, while North Staffordshire was operating CSC’s iPM system at the Royal Stoke University Hospital.

Mark Bostock, the new trust’s ICT director, told EHI the trust chose System C through an NHS procurement framework due to the need to implement a single EPR across the merged trust. Bostock said the trust chose the Medway EPR because of its interoperability and “rich clinical functionality."

He said the EPR is also one of the few systems with an integrated results reporting module, which will allow the trust to integrate information such as results letters and images from its picture archiving and communications system.

System C also told the trust that its EPR can integrate with a clinical portal the trust has developed in-house to provide clinicians with relevant information in a chronological order at the point of care.

“It’s something that has been designed by clinicians over a number of years, and they really feel like they’ve put their heart and soul into it, so being able to work with that front-end portal is important.”

Bostock said the trust plans to implement the EPR by April 2016, and has started work on encouraging clinical engagement in the design and implementation of the system.

“What’s massively important to us is that the clinicians come on board at the trust with ICT, because they’re going to be the change champions and people using the system.”

He said the trust is using a portal developed by itself and Graphnet to present information from both EPRs currently in use at the trust while the implementation process is underway to ensure continuity of access. The trust is also planning to formally launch a new ICT strategy early next month, Bostock said.

Markus Bolton, the joint chief executive of System C, said: “We are really pleased to be working with UHNM to streamline acute care provision across the North Midlands.  The Medway PAS/EPR will give clinicians access to a single digital care record, meaning a more joined up and efficient service and improved care for patients.”