Croydon prepares to expand Cerner use

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust has completed integration testing for the second phase of its Cerner Millennium electronic patient record system roll-out; significantly expanding its existing system.

The trust’s January board papers outline its plans to go live with increased functionality for Cerner Millennium towards the end of March.

The second phase of the Millennium implementation will see the roll-out of modules for maternity, theatres, critical care with integrated bedside medical devices, clinical documentation, and information dashboards.

The board papers say the final phase of integration testing was due to finish on 13 February, followed by a number of other technical tasks and workstream activities.

The go-live is set to take place over 28 and 29 March, just over one year after work on the deployment began.

The system will be unavailable for staff to access from 1pm on the 27th until 1pm on the 28th, with most of the new functionality becoming available to use before the end of the month.

The theatres module is not due to be used by staff until the end of April, while the go-live for the critical care module is set to take place in early May.

A trust spokesperson told EHI News the Millennium EPR has “bedded in well at the trust” since its rollout in A&E and outpatients in September 2013; becoming the first community provider in the UK to go live with the EPR.

Integration testing has been “robust” and not shown any notable integration issues, while the trust has been working with the senior teams in each area to ensure they understand the purpose of the project.

The rollout of the EPR will ensure that the trust’s clinicians can benefit from the full scope of the system, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the trust is also working on an upgrade on its N3 network connection to allow it to keep up with the functionality of an EPR, with the upgrade planned to deploy in early March ahead of the phase two go-live.

Last October, the trust became the first in the UK to receive a Level 6 rating from international health information body HIMSS Europe.

The non-profit organisation grades hospitals based on how they have improved their delivery of healthcare through the use of IT and electronic management systems, measured against the European Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model.

The trust was formed in August 2010 through the integration of Croydon Community Health Services and acute provider Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust.