Epic win at Cambridge

Epic has won the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust joint electronic patient record procurement, eHealth Insider can exclusively reveal.

Cambridge and Papworth will be the first UK reference sites for the US software supplier, which is known to have heavily invested in the high-profile bid.

The trusts selected Epic ahead of Cerner and Allscripts in what is seen by many as one of the most important NHS IT procurements in recent years.

A Cambridge University Hospitals statement provided to EHI this morning says: “Epic has a successful track record of delivering software products designed with patients and clinicians in mind at academic healthcare centres in the US and Europe.”

The trusts had 53 responses to a tender released in June 2011 for their eHospital programme, which was split into two lots – for infrastructure and hardware and for software.

The trusts announced a shortlist of three suppliers for the software component of the project in December. These were Cerner, Epic and Allscripts. Hewlett Packard has won the hardware and infrastructure part of the tender.

Dr Gareth Goodier, chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals, described the two chosen companies as “world-class organisations” and the decision as “the first step in our ten year journey to transform our hospitals through our innovative eHospital programme."

“This is more than an electronic patient record system – it will support clinical decisions and lead to better prescribing, improved patient communications and more effective management of our services,” he said.

“Work continues on all the necessary checks to ensure that we are making the right decision to invest in this programme and that our staff and patients will be getting real value for money.

"I am confident that we will see significant quality improvements and efficiency savings through this unique partnership.”

Both trusts currently run legacy iSoft patient administration systems, with Papworth taking iPM as an ‘interim’ system from the National Programme for IT in the NHS, while Cambridge stuck with its existing system.

“It is anticipated that the two companies will work in partnership with the hospitals over the next ten years to create a future-proofed, secure and integrated information technology service.

"This will enable clinical staff to access all information relating to their patients whenever and wherever they need it,” the trust statement says.

“Following an open and competitive procurement and selection process over the last 11 months contracts are expected to be signed at the end of June.”

A November 2011 pamphlet about the eHospital project says Cambridge University Hospitals’ current technology is “old, unstable and slow” and this causes “considerable staff frustration."

“Our vision for our future is one where computers are part and parcel of every day work for everyone: doctors, nurses, technicians, administrators and the patient," the pamphlet adds.

“This will make our healthcare more efficient, effective, safe, accessible and reliable. We could save money and improve patient care.

“Staff will be able to see a unified view of the patient – whether it is clinical, administrative or management information they are looking for.

“We plan to harness the best of stable and proven technology – be it wireless networks, laptops, hand-held devices, voice recognition systems, barcodes or conventional desktop computing.”

A Cambridge University Hospitals forward planning document says the board of directors approved the outline business case to “procure new IT systems and services” in April 2011 and there was some “vulnerability” until the new system is installed and running.

The combined organisations will have more than 9,000 staff and 1,300 beds.