Coventry to procure new EPR

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust is looking for a new electronic patient record to replace its existing in-house clinical results reporting system.

January board papers say the  trust has given “approval to entering into the next phase of the procurement process” for an EPR.

A spokesperson confirmed to EHI News that the trust is looking for an “entirely new EPR system” and that it is “very early in the process with the business case for the Trust Development Authority being outlined as we speak”.

The spokesperson added that the trust is “very excited” about the development, but is unable to provide more detail until the business case had been approved.

The announcement marks a change from September 2013 when the trust told EHI News that it intended to use a ‘best of breed approach’ for its EPR programme.

Danny Roberts, then EPR programme director, said at the time that CRRS would serve as a base for a three-pillar approach to a full EPR system. The other pillars were an electronic patient observation track and trigger system and an electronic document management system to handle the remaining paper.

Commenting on the change of heart, the Coventry spokesperson said: “Having looked at all the research we consider a new EPR to be the best solution for an organisation of our complexity.”

Roberts departed as programme director at the end of December 2013 to join South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. Alec Price Forbes is now EPR Lead supported by a new head of EPR.

February trust board papers say the new EPR should be “designed by healthcare professionals in partnership with patient groups” in order to secure maximum professional and patient engagement.

Specific principles include the need for patients to be granted “user friendly, real time and retrospective access to read their records, and a facility to enter comments”.