Imperial live with Cerner PAS

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has finally deployed its Cerner Millennium patient administration system and maternity module, following a series of delays.

The trust went live with the PAS and maternity module on April 22, roughly one year later than initially planned.

An Imperial spokeperson told EHI that the go-live date was designed to take advantage of the four days of lower planned activity over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

“This follows on from our implementation of the Cerner order communications module for ordering and viewing pathology and radiology tests in 2011.

“The preparation and cutover involved a team effort from staff across the organisation.

“The focus for the implementation programme now is supporting staff as they get used to the new processes, and making sure that the new system operates smoothly.”

The trust is one of the largest in the country, with an annual turnover of more than £970m in the 2012/13 financial year.

The trust was formed following the merger of the St Mary’s and Hammersmith Hospitals trusts and integration with the faculty of medicine at Imperial College London.

Imperial previously used an IMS Maxims PAS, and CMiS from HD Clinical and ICHIS from IMS Maxims for its maternity modules.

The roll-out of the PAS and maternity module was initially meant to take place in spring 2013, but it was pushed back to August 2013 and then again to 2014.

At the time of the delay, a trust spokesperson told EHI it was “taking a rigorous approach” to ensure the system was ready to go live and staff were well prepared.

The trust deployed the first module of its Millennium project, order communications, as part of NPfIT in September 2011.

EHI reported in October last year that the trust has spent more than £4.6m on external consultants for its Cerner Millennium EPR programme since April 2012.

On its website, the trust describes the PAS implementation as “an important step in our journey towards [making] the electronic patient record available wherever in the trust there is clinical need”.

It says the quality of patient data and its overall ability to manage resources to deliver patient care will be improved as a result of the move.

London trusts were provided with Cerner’s Millennium EPR from BT under the National Programme for IT.

EHI understands that all six London trusts are planning to stick with Millennium, and three trusts – Royal Free London, Barts Health and St George’s Healthcare – have already confirmed they will stay with the system beyond the end of their national contracts.

A Cerner spokesperson told EHI: “Cerner has worked closely with the trust on the implementation over a number of years – a complex and major change management programme – and we will continue to support the trust to realise the benefits of the new systems.”