System C delivers Barking PAS update

System C is testing a new software release at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust to resolve issues with the deployment of its Medway patient administration system.

The trust paused all further go-lives of its Medway modules in May, due to problems with a “large known number of outstanding issues” for its PAS, particularly related to capturing and reporting data.

In a report presented at the trust board’s July meeting, deputy chief executive Steve Russell said “after significant effort” the trust had received a formal proposal from System C outlining which patches should be applied to resolve the issues.

Russell said the deployment of the patches “may represent a material change to the system”, requiring further re-training and a deployment programme.

The report said the trust is planning to deploy a change management team in key areas to support staff with the Medway PAS – work which it said normally would have taken place prior to deployment, but is now a “crucial component” of the stabilisation plan.

It has also commenced discussions to upgrade its existing maternity and A&E systems to mitigate the risk of pausing the Medway module deployments.

Russell’s report said a key risk is that the patches might not fully address the PAS issues, resulting in “cumbersome workarounds” needing to be put in place.

A joint statement from the trust and System C said the company has delivered a new software release “to resolve a number of outstanding issues with the matching of the Medway software with the trust’s processes”.

“Deployment of [any] new releases is…a major undertaking requiring significant levels of planning and testing, and this is undertaken by a team made up of System C and trust staff.”

The new release was delivered in July, with a 12-week installation, configuration and testing cycle currently underway.

The statement said “only a relatively small group of users” will require additional training for a revised referral to treatment time process as a result of the new release.

 “Systems of this scale and complexity are difficult to deploy and both parties are continuing to work together to ensure the remaining work is managed as efficiently as possible.

“Regular new releases and software patches are standard practice across the market and the trust is expecting to deploy further releases as the product evolves.”

The statement said the relationship between the trust and System C is “good at all levels”, with the trust pleased with the level of support it has received from System C’s new management team.

The trust went live with the PAS in December last year, only seven months after announcing the contract win, due to its eagerness to deploy a new system before the support contract for its legacy McKesson Totalcare PAS expired in March.

“Due to extremely tight timescales, the system went live with a known large number of outstanding issues remaining unresolved, effectively before user acceptance testing had been completed, but the trust did give the go-ahead to deploy,” said a paper from the trust board’s May meeting.

The reason for the go-live happening before the trust was ”effectively ready” was, according to the paper, because “System C could only undertake a deployment in December 2013 due to commitments to other trusts”.