Allscripts wants “smart trusts”

Allscripts wants to work with trusts that know what success looks like, the company’s managing director for Europe has said, as the supplier looks to win more trusts in the UK.

In an interview with EHI, Stuart Miller said that the electronic patient record supplier is interested in long term strategic opportunities with trusts.

“Some of the things that we look for are good alignment of objectives, desire and commitment. We expect clinical commitment and smart IT people that are looking to do the right thing for their customers and good leadership,” he said.

“We want to work with people who have worked out what it’s going to take to achieve success. A large part of success is commitment and having realistic expectations.”

The US supplier first entered the UK market when it signed a contract with Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS Foundation Trust in April 2012.

The trust was its first UK win, followed closely by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust in August 2012. Both trusts went live in June 2013, which been seemingly successful so far.  Since then, the company has worked to establish itself in the UK market place, and opened its European headquarters in Manchester last week.

Miller said being close to its UK clients means the company can be more “responsive” to queries and problem solving. It also sets up a base for the company which aims to make a huge impact in the UK market place.

“We see tremendous opportunity here in the UK and I anticipate that we will be making more announcements in the UK within the year,” said Miller.

“We are much more interested in talking to organisations who want to be quite strategic about what they’re doing,” he said.

He added that although he believes NHS England’s Integrated Digital Care Fund is “pump-priming” market activity, it does not change Allscripts priorities.

“Although the tech fund is creating a lot of interest in the market they tend to focus on short term projects,” he said, adding that he does not rule out that some of the trusts the company is in talks with could end up putting in a bid which involves Allscripts.

“We continue to pursue opportunities that are a good match for us and we hope that the organisations we’re talking to are able to articulate business cases.”

The Allscripts EPR comes with a number of clinical modules, including e-referrals, a patient portal, clinical portal and various ward management tools. However, it does not provide a patient administration system.

Miller said that the company is “PAS agnostic” and if a trust wants a PAS, the company will partner with vendors that have a “market applicable system”, but that he would rather the trust left the PAS be, as both Liverpool Heart and Chest and Salford have done.

“When I’m talking to trust about when to replace the PAS, unless you have an absolutely burning platform, spend your core money on improving the clinical workflow practice,” he said and added that from a business case perspective; there are very few benefits from replacing a PAS.

“Quite often the hardest part in any procurement is to turn around and say ‘no that’s not going to work’. We’re very clear about what we know it takes to get this projects working.”

Despite the company having what some might find as a firm line with trusts, Miller said there is plenty of interest in Allscripts and it is a busy procurement season.

“It’s an extraordinary amount of work to do a procurement lot of people want to see us involved in the evaluation. It’s something we are very excited to be a part of.”