Ramsay signs deal for openMaxims

Independent healthcare provider Ramsay Health Care has signed a ten-year contract with IMS Maxims for its open source electronic patient record system and clinical modules.

The deal will see the openMaxims EPR rolled out across all of Ramsay’s 32 private hospitals and treatment centres, with an average of 1,500 users at any one time.

Andrew Till, Ramsay’s corporate service director, said the contract will help the independent provider to improve its service.

“We are always striving to provide a safe, high quality seamless service and IT is a cornerstone to achieving this mission.

“We saw a number of principles in the company that reflected our own ethos at Ramsay, such as integrity and professionalism, which wholly supported the commitment to enter a ten-year deal.”

Ramsay Health Care was set up in Sydney, Australia, in the 1960s and has expanded to the far east, France and the UK. In the UK, it focuses on weight loss and cosmetic surgery, while offering hip and knee replacements and some other clinical treatments.

The rollout will cover IMS Maxims’ full suite of open source products, including a patient administration system and modules for order communications, electronic discharges, theatres, bed management and clinical noting.

Electronic prescribing, medical device integration, voice recognition, direct booking capability and a pharmacy system will also be introduced as part of the contract.

Till said the Maxims EPR will allow clinicians to access patient information at any time via desktop or mobile devices, improving productivity and improving response times for patients at the point of care.

The EPR’s integration capabilities will also mean there is less manual intervention needed to integrate data across systems, leading to a “quicker and more coordinated service,” he said.

Till said he is confident with IMS Maxim’s open source development processes and how they will improve the company’s products in future.

Shane Tickell, chief executive of IMS Maxims, said the contract “reflects the hard work and time invested to understand Ramsay’s requirements for a strategic IT solution.”

“As we look forward to this long-term partnership, I believe the extensive knowledge and experience of both organisations will enable the delivery of safer, more efficient care for the benefit of patients.”