New web based system to monitor C. difficile bug
A new web based system to enhance monitoring of the Clostridium difficile bug (C difficile) is to be introduced later this month by the Department of Health (DH), enabling acute and primary care trusts to monitor progress on local targets and to identify ‘infection hotspots’ requiring attention. The department says the new system will both […]
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Patient safety tops IT priorities in CIO poll
Implementing information technology to reduce medical errors and promote patient safety remains the top priority for healthcare chief information officers (CIO) surveyed in a major US poll. The 18th Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) survey of CIOs found that safety issues remained the respondents’ prime concern both for now and for the future. […]
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Fujitsu signs pathology contracts with three trusts
Three NHS trusts in the South of England have signed contracts totalling £5.5m with Fujitsu Services to provide them with Cerner’s PathNet pathology suite integrated with Cerner Millennium. The contracts will run until 2013. The three trusts are Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust, East Kent Hospitals and Medway NHS Trust, Kent. The PathNet system is […]
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Patients helped by remote monitoring, study finds
Remote monitoring of patients with chronic heart failure has a positive impact on clinical outcomes, according to a study published this week. A review published in the BMJ found that structured telephone support or telemonitoring by a health professional reduced admissions to hospital for chronic heart failure and deaths from all causes by nearly one […]
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NPfIT local ownership programme gets put back
Plans for strategic health authorities to take local ownership for shaping and delivering the NHS IT programme have become bogged down due to central wrangling and may not not be implemented before the summer. NHS Connecting for Health and England’s ten SHAs are continuing to work through the details of the ‘local ownership programme’ (NLOP) […]
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Report warns of embarrassment over NHSu’s £72m
A report on the now-defunct online NHS university (NHSu) says that the £72m spent on the project would have exposed the Department of Health (DH) to ‘significant embarrassment’ if the value-for-money it delivered had been probed. The report has been released under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, but so far no electronic copy has appeared on the Department […]
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DH to pilot care from home in July
The Department of Health has announced that it will be beginning piloting primary care commissioning of telecare in July, with pilot sites chosen by next month. Speaking at the recent Managing Long Term Conditions conference in Telford, Gary Belfield, the DH’s head of primary care announced that three PCTs will be chosen next month to […]
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Atos Origin’s £257m DH diagnostics contract suspended
A £257m contract for diagnostic services in North-west and South-west England awarded to Atos Origin last December has been suspended after the Department of Health (DH) ordered an independent review following concerns about quality and administrative procedures. Atos Origin had been working with eight PCTs in the North-west since December but some ultrasound and MRI scan […]
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Hewitt launches ‘Choose and Book’ librarians
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has launched ten ‘choice’ library pilots. Librarians in the pilots will be trained to help people find and make sense of information about different healthcare providers and "choose and book" their hospital appointment. A DH spokesperson told EHI that the librarians would help people better understand the choices available to them, but would […]
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DH extend outsourcing contract with CSC
The Department of Health have agreed a £20m deal with Computer Sciences Corporation to extend their information technology outsourcing contract for an additional two years until 2011. The DH first awarded a seven year £39m contract to CSC for the outsourcing of infrastructure and application support services for around 4500 DH staff in 2002 . […]
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