Fife Signs up for Oasis

Fife Acute Hospitals Trust has awarded a 15-year contract for electronic patient records (EPR) to Siemens Healthcare who will be provide the Oasis EPR system supplied by its British healthcare systems strategic partners Elan Technologies.

Oasis will be delivered in the form of e-oasis, Elan’s browser-based EPR that has been designed to simplify the collection and storage of a patient’s complete clinical and administrative records.

The system should enable the trust to meet Scottish Government targets for the implementation of electronic patient record systems.

The value of the 15 year deal was not disclosed, but the speed of the procurement, which was completed in less than 12 months, has won praise for the trust from the Scottish Office.

Similar contract negotiations for healthcare systems elsewhere in the UK have often taken 2 to 3 years to finalise, sometimes resulting in systems being out of date by the time they are implemented.

Mr Greenshields, finance director at Fife, said “We are extremely satisfied with the outcome of our procurement. This new contract will enable the Trust to meet its long term objectives and maintain continuity of service provision for our clients."

Mike Singer, Elan’s managing director, told E-health Media the speed of the procurement reflected the commitment of skills and management resource invested by Fife.

Singer said that the Oasis system, "Will take pretty much take the trust all the way through to level 5 EPR with elements of level 6 EPR".

He added: “The length of the contract demonstrates the Trust’s commitment to Oasis as a long term investment and reinforces the partnership between Elan and Siemens”.

The trust first installed the Oasis EPR system on an evaluation basis five years ago at Queen Margaret hospitals.

The trust’s acting head of IM&T Joyce Wardrope commented: “The continued partnership will enable the further development of Oasis to meet the changing needs of the healthcare community."

She added: "We are particularly excited by advancements in mobile health records which Elan is developing in partnership with University College London”

The deal is the first EPR contract to be awarded to the strategic partnership of Siemens Healthcare and Elan, which have a 10-year long term strategic partnership agreement.