Sheffield selects System C

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has decided to buy System C’s Medway as its replacement patient administration system.

The trust runs the legacy Totalcare PAS from McKesson and needs to replace it before central support for the system expires in March 2014.

A report from the chief executive to the trust board in April says that the procurement of Medway from System C, a McKesson company, is the first step towards an electronic patient record system.

“The board approved a decision to finalise the procurement of a replacement PAS for the trust, as the first phase of the development of an EPR. The successful supplier can be confirmed as McKesson and the system itself is System C,” it says.

Sheffield Children’s plans to go-live with Medway in February 2014 and is putting project management arrangements in place to move onto the new system.

The trust has been looking to replace Totalcare for years. It went out to tender for a PAS in 2011, but later cancelled the procurement saying it needed to work on its strategy before re-tendering.

In July 2012 it went out to tender again, looking for a replacement PAS with “options for electronic patient record functionality.”

The trust then paused its procurement while it assessed CSC’s Lorenzo offer. A deal between the company and the Department of Health means trusts in the North, Midlands and East of England can get deployment and service costs centrally funded if they take CSC’s EPR.

However, Sheffield eventually decided against the system, saying it did not meet the trust’s needs as a specialist paediatric trust.

Commenting on the decision to buy Medway, chief operating officer Isabel Hemmings said:

“The trust can confirm that it has completed a procurement process which resulted in the selection of McKesson’s System C PAS as the first phase of the development of an EPR and is satisfied that the chosen option meets the criteria set for assessment.”

McKesson yesterday announced its intention to sell McKesson UK, including subsidiaries System C and Liquidlogic.