University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has signed a deal with US electronic medical records supplier Epic to design and build its electronic health record system (EHRS).

UCLH will now work with Epic to design, build and implement the new EHRS as part of a wider clinical transformation, research and interoperability programme.

In March the trust board approved the deal, which has subsequently required approval by NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Go live is planned for 2019.  Details of the value of the Epic deal were not disclosed, but ECLS forms part of a wider transformation programme led by Atos.

The trust said it will work with other NHS organisations on various aspects of Epic implementation.  Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust became the first UK trust to implement Epic in 2014 , and Great Ormond Street Hospital signed a deal with Epic in February, worth up to £50 million.

Professor Marcel Levi, UCLH chief executive, said: “This is a much needed investment for UCLH. After a detailed and extensive procurement process, we have now agreed the best way forward to continuously improve patient safety, improve interdisciplinary quality of care and make communication between patients and their health care providers easier.”

Prof Levi added: “Another important feature will be that the system will facilitate exchange of information between different healthcare providers, such as general practitioners and other hospitals.”

The majority of London’s NHS hospitals run the Millennium electronic patient record system, supplied by Epic’s arch-rival Cerner.

UCLH said that EHRS will provide a single, integrated electronic clinical record to support the delivery of patient care and research.

EHRS will also provide an advanced patient portal, which will enable patients to access their own data safely and securely, to help manage and improve their conditions and communicate with their care team.

Gill Gaskin, medical director Specialist Hospitals Board, UCLH, said: “The key to success will be the close involvement of patients, clinicians and researchers so that everyone benefits quickly when we go live in 2019.”

UCLH said the detailed EHRS design, implementation and training programme will be clinically led.

The contract award to Epic forms the final major piece of UCLH’s digital transformation strategy, which has also seen Atos appointed as foundational ICT partner and TeleTracking Technologies as patient flow and equipment tracking partner for a new Coordination Centre Programme.

The trust also stressed that EHRS will enable the trust to become fully interoperable with NHS partners, supporting data sharing for the North Central London Sustainability and Transformation Plan. “UCLH will collaborate closely with NHS Digital, NHS Improvement and NHS England throughout its implementation of Epic.”

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