Exc: County Durham and Darlington sign 10-year deal with Cerner

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has signed a 10-year deal with Cerner which will see the implementation of an integrated electronic patient record (EPR) solution, Digital Health News can exclusively reveal.

The trust will deploy Cerner’s Millennium EPR solution after its board gave support to move forward with the contract in December 2020.

Andrew Jennings, surgeon and chief clinical information officer (CCIO) for the trust, said the partnership with Cerner was a “fantastic step forward”.

He added: “The new Cerner EPR will replace multiple clinical systems, removing information silos and providing our clinicians with all the information needed to deliver effective care to our patients quickly and in one place. As an organisation we will use this same information to improve care and give healthcare staff the tools needed to be safer and more efficient.

“We have been on a long procurement journey to ensure that the solution we implement is the right one for our clinicians, support staff, patients and citizens. We will now embark on a clinical and service-led delivery journey to ensure we achieve the anticipated benefits from an integrated care record.”

Cerner’s Millennium platform is used by more than 144,000 health and care professionals across 22 NHS trusts every month. County Durham and Darlington join the likes of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which signed a 15-year agreement with Cerner in June 2018 to implement Millennium.

Distie Profit, managing director for Cerner in the UK added: “Informed decision making forms the basis of safe and reliable care. Making relevant and up-to-date patient information available at the point of care in a proven and integrated platform is fundamental to enable this.

“We are proud to have been chosen to work with County Durham and Darlington, and are excited to welcome them to our growing client community across the NHS, a community that’s constantly sharing knowledge that benefits the way care is provided to patients all across the country.”