EHI’s industry round up 16.10.2009

This month’s E-Health Insider industry round-up covers news about system deployments, achievements and awards, and other developments in healthcare IT.

Nortel launches patient discharge and asset tracking solutions

Nortel has announced two additions to its healthcare solution portolio. The first is a patient discharge solution, which introduces unified communications and interoperability between hospital systems to reduce inefficiencies in the discharge process. Discharging consultants can begin and monitor the discharge process from wherever they are, while alerting pharmacy, cleaning and catering staff to an imminent discharge. Nortel has also created an asset tracking and management solution that works with a hospital wi-fi network.

Derbyshire rolls out Destiny’s digital pen

Mental health services across Derbyshire have started capturing patient information using a digital pen from Destiny. More than 700 staff at Derbyshire Mental Health Services NHS Trust are using the digital pen, which has a tiny infrared camera at its tip. This reads and records the movements of the pen when it used on special dotted paper. When their notes are completed, clinicians tick the ‘send’ box on the dotted paper to transmit them back the office via a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone.

NHS Hampshire controls assets with Asset4000

NHS Hampshire, the largest primary care trust in the country, has selected Asset4000 from Real Asset Management to manage £150m worth of assets. Asset4000 will provide the PCT and its provider arm, Hampshire Community Healthcare, with a central asset register and allow it to determine what property is owned and managed by each of its departments. The solution will work with an existing SBS Oracle Financials system.

Chloride provides uninterruptable power supply for Sandwell and West Birmingham

Chloride and Stewart Associates have announced that Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust is using Chloride’s 80-NET UPS system to protect its cardiac catheter equipment from power disruptions and impurities in the power supply. The UPS system has been designed to provide 30 minutes of support at full load in case of a power failure.

West Midlands Ambulance Service buys BlockMaster secure USB sticks

BlockMaster has announced that it will supply West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust with more than 300 secure USB flash drives. The trust will use the SafeSticks to secure portable data, through automatic hardware encryption. It will also use SafeConsole, a web based management solution, to manage, audit, reset passwords, and apply custom policies to all SafeSticks. The drives have been deployed by Softek, an IT security, storage and archiving solutions distributor.

HCA International deploys ImageNow in accounts payable

Perceptive Software has announced that HCA International has deployed its ImageNow enterprise content management system into its accounts payable department. HCA International, which runs six hospitals and four outpatient medical centres in London, is hoping to simplify invoice processing. The software will integrate with the group’s Meditech host system.

Initiate Systems launches blog

Initiate Systems has launched a ‘thought leadership’ blog on mastering data management. The blog will be maintained by Initiate executives and managers who already appear in the technology press and at industry conferences and events and will discuss data management principles and developments. Initiate is based in Chicago, but has offices worldwide, including in London.

21C launches capacity planner

21C has announced the addition of a capacity planner module to its portfolio of Business Intelligence tools. Paul Henderson, managing director at 21C, said: "Our BI solution provides primary care trusts with an opportunity to plan for and therefore manage demand; schedule patient needs against the capacity and capability in teams; and assess the time spent on each activity to look at news ways of improving productivity."

New hospital implements IP system

South Holland Community Hospital in Lincolnshire is implementing a £100,000 IP communications system from NEC Philips Unified Solutions. The new, £24m community hospital will use the VoIP telephony peer to peer solution, configured with dual servers, to underpin the communications systems for its 700 staff. John Mosedale, ICT project coordinator at the hospital, said: "NEC was the only company able to provide the infrastructure design and installation at a competitive price, which involved a combination of IP and analogue extensions across two server rooms in different parts of the hospital."

Dictate.it announces three new contract wins

Dictate.it has announced three new contract wins, bringing the total number of NHS trusts that it is working with to 27. The latest trusts to take Dictate.it’s patient digital dictation platform are Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The first two organisations will be using the company’s workflow management platform, while Thurrock has decided to add Dictate.it’s outsourced transcription services.