IT Use Varies Widely in Radiology, says Audit Commission
The use of information and digital technology varies widely in acute hospital radiology departments, according to a survey published this week by the Audit Commission for England and Wales. The report, based on figures gathered in April 2001, records that only a minority of departments were able to provide referring clinicians with access to digital […]
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Mobile e-Procurement Shows the Way on NHS IT
Staff at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust now send for supplies from handheld computers which also enable them to keep track of orders and deliveries and manage stock. The new system, called WANDER, which has been designed and developed by KPMG Consulting with Microsoft and Hewlett Packard, was launched officially this week by health minister, Lord […]
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EDS is Preferred Supplier for NHS National e-Mail
EDS was named by the NHS Information Authority this week as the new preferred supplier for the NHS national e-mail service. The IT services multinational, which also handles substantial projects for the Inland Revenue and the Department for Work and Pensions and other government departments, was chosen ahead of Syntegra, the networking arm of British […]
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Torex Wins Contracts at Two Shared Services Sites
Torex Health has been awarded five year contracts to implement Oracle financial services software at two shared services centres due to open in autumn this year. The centres at Bristol and South Leeds will provide a range of financial services to various NHS organisations including acute, primary care and ambulance trusts in two UK regions […]
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Global Healthcare Exchange Goes Live at Leeds
Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX), the health e-commerce platform established by an alliance of leading international medical device firms, has announced that Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has become the first European hospital to be integrated into its e-commerce system. Medical industry-backed GHX focuses on deeply integrating into the purchasing systems of hospitals and suppliers to cut […]
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NAO Praises NHS Direct Implementation
The first national evaluation of NHS Direct, the flagship NHS nurse-led telephone health advice service, concludes that the service has been a success and praises the way the project has been managed and the key IT system procured and implemented. The telephone advice service, which uses a national clinical decision support system, is redirecting up […]
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Boxing Day Busiest Ever Day for NHS Direct
NHS Direct, the UK national telephone health advice service, had its busiest ever day on Boxing Bay, as the holiday season took its toll. The top enquiries were for vomiting, fever, coughs and diarrhoea. According to figures reported by the Guardian, the 24-hour nurse-led advice service took more than 24,000 calls on Boxing Day – […]
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IT Needed to Cut Drug Deaths
A new report by the Audit Commission has highlighted the need to invest in IT systems to cut the increasing number of patients who die after being given the wrong drugs in hospital. Approximately 1,200 people died last year in England and Wales as a result of the medication errors often caused by ineffective information […]
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Department of Health awards £325m HR and Payroll Contract
The UK Department of Health (DH) has awarded a £325 million contract — the largest IT contract yet awarded within the NHS — for an integrated HR and payroll system for the NHS in England and Wales to a consortium led by US health IT firm McKesson. The HR and Payroll contract, described as the […]
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Web-based Clinical Information System Goes Live at Birmingham
Birmingham City Hospital NHS Trust has become the first trust in England to deploy a fully web-based, end-to-end, enterprise-wide clinical system to every desktop in the hospital. The new web-based clinical information system, developed by health IT supplier iSoft builds on early in-house development work carried out by the trust, and is based on the […]
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