EMIS Group has acquired Pinnacle Health Partnership and Pinnacle Systems Management, owners and operators of the widely-used PharmOutcomes platform.
PharmOutcomes is a web-based management service used by more than 11,000 community pharmacies to record and manage nationally and locally-commissioned patient services.
It allows local and national level analysis and reporting on the effectiveness of commissioned services, including flu vaccinations, community pharmacy consultation services and hospital discharge referral management.
The acquisition aims to support EMIS’s strategy to improve medicines management and to support pharmacies in providing more clinical services.
The company did not disclose the value of the acquisition, with a spokesperson citing commercial sensitivity.
Shanel Raichura, clinical director at EMIS Health, said: “This is an exciting acquisition for EMIS Group. It will enable us to provide new services more quickly to our pharmacy customers – supporting them in their changing role.
“By joining up the technology, we will make it easier for pharmacy to deliver a wider range of patient services – including referrals from NHS 111 and from GP practices – and to fulfil the requirements of the new contract.
“There will also be the opportunity to develop new services, for example in response to the Patient Group Directions initiative.”
The deal will see PharmOutcomes embedded in EMIS Group’s community pharmacy system, ProScript Connect software. This will be made available to the wider marketplace and to non-EMIS Health customers, the company said.
Development work is also underway on a new end-to-end system that will make digital GP referrals to pharmacy easier, by removing the technology barrier in the current GP-Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS) pilots.
Specifically, the new setup will link PharmOutcomes via EMIS Web and the Patient Access app.
Gary Warner and Kevin Noble, managing partners at Pinnacle Health Partnership, will remain in post following the acquisition along with their management team.
Warner, who is also a practising pharmacist on the Isle of Wight, clarified that PharmOutcomes’ services “will continue unchanged and the future developments will benefit EMIS Health and non-EMIS Health customers alike.”
He added: “We created PharmOutcomes to help commissioners to understand and better engage with pharmacy.
“Becoming part of EMIS Group will open up a host of new opportunities for us to build on our success and to further support pharmacy in its future role. It’s an exciting time.”