Stalis confirms Northumbria win

Stalis has confirmed it has won the contract to replace Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s ageing McKesson patient administration system.

EHealth Insider reported in September that the company had been chosen to implement a PAS developed by Silverlink Software.

Stalis has now confirmed the news. It will replace the current McKesson PAS with a system from Silverlink, with the aim of going live in November.

The contract includes replacement of the PAS, data migration using Stalis’ CareXML data migration system, and business continuity services.

Northumbria has been running McKesson’s TotalCare since 1998, but went out to tender for a new PAS in 2006.

It halted the procurement when it was promised that it would be the next in line for Lorenzo – the ‘strategic’ system CSC has been attempting to deploy in the North, Midlands and East under the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

However, it was subsequently affected by further delays to the programme. The trust became one of 21 organisations involved in a support deal for McKesson legacy systems, signed between the company and the Department of Health in January 2010.

Its decision to go with Stalis makes it the first McKesson trust to choose an alternative PAS since McKesson acquired System C and its suite of clinical and administrative software.

EHI understands the final decision was between the Silverlink and System C offerings. Christine Whitehouse, managing director of Stalis, said it was “naturally delighted” to have won the deal against “fierce competition.”

Trust chief executive Jim Mackey said: “the implementation of the [PAS] represents a major stage in our information management and technology strategy to build and electronic health record.

“We are pleased to partner with Stalis in this development and with the locally-based team at Silverlink.” Silverlink’s developers are based in Newcastle.

Head of information technology, Kevin Dickinson, said the new system would significantly improve the handling of information and help to provide a higher quality service.

The trust has also recently announced that it will be implementing a clinical portal from Orion Health to provide clinicians with information at the point of care.

It is also planning to implement a ward management system this year, and has budgeted £6m over three years to support the delivery of its IT strategy.