Wye Valley NHS Trust has gone live with IMS Maxims electronic patient record (EPR), despite several delays.

The trust implemented the open-source clinical system on 31 July, more than four months after its deployment date (26 March), replacing its acute and community patient administration systems (PAS) and theatre system.

The deployment included migrating more than 18 million records from old acute and community PAS on the final weekend. IMS Maxims will now handle more than 2,000 patient records a day.

“The first days have been very encouraging, which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of programme team and the wider trust”, said Mark Francis, EPR programme director at the trust.

“As expected and as with any system implementation there have been issues but we have a robust process to manage and resolve them and an engaged organisation and suppliers all of whom are keen to put in the work to make this programme a success.”

The whole project has taken more than 18 months of planning.

Wye Valley, one of the smallest hospitals in the country, was scheduled to go live with the EPR on 17 July but was further delayed as the board felt the additional fortnight “would be beneficial to the implementation in terms of technical and organisational readiness” – according to a trust spokesman.

The trust’s 7 July board papers said the programme “remains on target” for the 17 July, but “there is still much work to do”.

This included ensuring 500 remaining members of staff confirmed their booking for training, and continued  configuration and testing of the system.

However, the report in this paper had an added note saying “this report will become out of date” by the time of meeting and an addendum will be added to reflect the current state of play. The trust has not supplied this addendum.

The trust’s March board papers said the go-live was being delayed from 26 March to 17 July due to parts of the technology not being developed and tested in time. This was “to allow additional clinical functionality to be developed”, a trust spokesman told Digital Health News at the time.

In August 2015, Digital Health News reported that the five-year project was worth £15 million, including supplier costs and infrastructure upgrades.

The trust was the second one in the country to choose IMS Maxims software in the country.

In the trust’s July board papers, it said £320,000 was spent on the EPR project out of a total of £415,000 capital spend.

The trust intends to expand IMS Maxims over the next two years, with order communications and additional clinical functionality.

“This is an important step forward for the trust and one we have been planning for some time”, Howard Oddy, director of finance and information at the trust said.

“A great deal of effort has gone into making sure the launch was successful and we look forward to reaping the benefits of the new system in the coming weeks, months and years.”

Wye Valley has also been nominated as a global digital exemplar fast follower trust, by fellow IMS Maxims trust, Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.

Shane Tickell, chief executive of IMS Maxims, said he was “delighted” to support the trust.

“There is a growing sense of confidence on site as staff familiarise themselves with the software, with the support of our implementation team.”

The trust is based in Hereford, and is one of the smallest rural district general hospitals in England.

02/08/17 – This story was updated to include comments from the trust and supplier

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