Barking picks Medway

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust has signed a contract with System C for its Medway patient administration system.

The trust runs McKesson’s Totalcare legacy PAS, but the support contract for the system expires in March 2014.

Steve Huddleston, the trust’s chief information officer, told EHI that Barking had signed the contract earlier this month and was planning to go-live by the end of the year.

“The trust is planning a rapid deployment, which should be complete by the end of 2013. This is seen as the foundation for achieving full electronic health records for patients,” he said.

The contract included the implementation of an electronic ordering and results reporting system, which was due to go live in November.

“The development of the Medway PAS will significantly improve the administration of patient information, with the ordering and results system helping to improve the efficiency of the emergency department, by speeding up the diagnostic reporting, reducing waits and helping to provide a higher quality service,” Huddleston said.

According to the trust’s April board minutes it awarded the contract to System C in January this year, but it remained unsigned for months “due to significant clarification and amendments required.”

The minutes add: “This has not delayed the implementation timescale to date, as the trust and system supplier have made an advanced service agreement to allow work to commence.”

Barking is the eighth Totalcare site to choose the Medway PAS from System C, a McKesson company.

The seven other trusts that have chosen to take the system are: Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust; North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust; Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Whittington Health; Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

McKesson announced last week that it was planning to sell McKesson UK, including subsidiaries System C and Liquidlogic.