Medway delays Oasis go-live

Medway NHS Foundation Trust has delayed the go-live of its Oasis patient administration system.

The trust was due to go-live last week as the support contract for its legacy Totalcare PAS from McKesson expires at the end of the month.  However the trust has postponed its deployment and has been given an extension of the support contract by McKesson.

A Medway trust spokesperson said that the planned go-live “was always going to be a challenge, but was necessary due to the current system being unsupported from that date.”

“The trust and Oasis Medical Solutions have worked well in partnership to achieve the original go live date however, recent negotiations with our current supplier have resulted in the support arrangement being extended, allowing us to take advantage of a short delay,” said the spokesperson.

“This additional time will be used to consolidate end user training and ensure that staff are even more confident for a smooth transition from Totalcare to Oasis.”

McKesson told EHI last year that it would provide “limited support” for the Totalcare system past March, but only for trusts taking its Medway PAS.

Medway announced the contract for its replacement PAS from Oasis medical solutions in June last year and its business case said the go-live would include A&E, order communications and results reporting.

The trust recently built a new data centre and completed a ‘data cleansing’ project to prepare for the go-live.

This included increasing NHS Number coverage, checking for duplicate records, and tidying up default entries to improve data quality.

The trust had planned to merge with Dartford and Gravesham NHS Foundation Trust to create a new ‘North Kent NHS Trust’ and Medway’s original business case for the PAS included a joint implementation.

The merger was announced in 2011 with the intention of reducing management costs and providing better patient care.

However, in June Medway was put into ‘special measures’ by health regulator Monitor, after a Care Quality Commission inspection uncovered a number of major failings, including poor communication, delayed discharges and long-waits in A&E.

In September, the two trusts agreed to stop the merger, saying it was not in their “current interests to proceed.”

In November, Medway was told to improve its management, and has since appointed a new interim chair and chief executive.

Medway and Dartford and Gravesham will continue to work together on joint projects, but as the contract for Dartford’s PatientCentre PAS from CSC does not expire until 2017, it has no immediate plans to deploy the Oasis PAS.

The trust spokesperson did not say when the trust plans to now go-live with Oasis, but EHI understands it has been put back until May.