iSoft reaches halfway point on Irish PAS deal
- 23 January 2008
iSoft has reached the halfway point on a £41.5m project to deliver integrated patient management systems to hospitals across Ireland. iSoft is providing its iPM PAS system under the contract.
The company announced that it has delivered systems which are now live in 26 hospitals in Ireland, a mixture of acute community and mental health. In total 52 Irish hospitals are covered by the deal.
The implementation programme is being managed by Ireland’s Health Service Executive, which is responsible for providing Health and Personal Social Services for everyone living in Ireland. iSoft say that the remaining hospitals will go-live over the next two years in accordance with HSE timescales. Ultimately the system will be rolled-out to all hospitals in Ireland.
In a statement, iSoft’s parent company, IBA Health, said it had also resolved outstanding contractual issues with HSE: “In addition to these successful implementations, a number of outstanding contractual matters with the HSE have now been resolved, including settlement of outstanding payments due to iSoft.”
An iSoft spokesperson told E-Health Insider the iPM solution would provide benefits to patients: “The IPMS project for Ireland’s Health Service Executive is designed to improve patient care by having a common system for doctors, nurses and other carers to access comprehensive medical records at the point of care. Patient care will be improved through the availability of higher quality and more comprehensive patient records for doctors, nurses and other professionals involved in patient care.
“The use of integrated care pathways will contribute significantly to enhance patient care and safety. The electronic sharing of information will also enable greater integration of services between hospitals, clinics and other facilities. Efficiencies in administrative practices will be achieved by increased automation, reduced transcription and automatic sharing of information.”
Paul Richards, managing director of iSoft UK and Ireland, added: “The ability to share information electronically will promote greater integration of services between hospitals, clinics and other care facilities. It will also improve administrative efficiencies and eliminate transcription errors.”
Cork University Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Ireland is also implementing iSoft’s clinical information system, iCM, which will provide clinicians at the hospital with access to hospital wide clinical order entry and the reporting of patients’ diagnostic results at the point of care.
Damien McCallion, head of ICT in HSE, said “The initial deployment has dealt with some very serious risk issues and provided hospitals with a modern patient management system that facilitates integration with other systems within our hospitals and will ultimately provide a strong foundation in our desire to move towards an electronic patient record.”
“The implementation of these new systems is a key enabler of our overall strategy which aims to use ICT to fundamentally support healthcare delivery,” he added.
Gary Cohen, executive chairman and CEO of IBA Health said: “The resolution of contract issues and the successful completion of the implementation in 26 hospitals builds on a long-standing relationship we have with the HSE, paving the way for further roll-out of patient management systems and clinical systems across the HSE network of care facilities.“
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