Sandwell and West Birmingham picks Cerner as IT partner

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust has chosen Cerner for a major investment in IT that will see it overhaul its infrastructure, implement an electronic patient record, interface with local GP systems, and create a new patient portal.

The investment will require approval by NHS Improvement (the new regulator that combines Monitor and the Trust Development Authority), but the trust is hopeful that implementation will start in August this year and be complete by November 2017.

In a statement announcing the development, Dr Pete Davies, the trust’s chief clinical information officer, said: This is going to represent a quantum leap in our capacity to provide safer care, to reduce unnecessary variation, and to improve patient experience.”

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals is an integrated care organisation that covers a population of around 530,000 people and runs two hospitals and two intermediate care hubs.

The trust has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission, but has a number of development plans that it hopes will address this. These include opening a new Midland Metropolitan Hospital in 2018, while investing in its intermediate care centres.

In response to queries from Digital Health News, the trust said it also had a “long history of using electronic systems to underpin care, having purchased iSoft iCM before the National Programme for IT was set up.”

It subsequently adopted a number of systems from iSoft, which is now owned by CSC, including the iPM patient administration system, the Ormis theatre system, and TPP SystmOne, which is used by its community services.

It also supports the Summary Care Record, regional Your Care Connected patient portal, and uses the Patients Know Best patient-held record.

In a somewhat unusual move, the trust intends to implement the Cerner EPR to replace iCM and Ormis, but to continue to operate the iPM PAS until this has been done, at which point it will “look to replace it.”

It will continue to use TPP in its community services, and interface this to Cerner using the company’s Health Information Exchange. This will also be used to link to GP systems.

Patients Know Best will be replaced by a Cerner portal that will enable patients to see their healthcare records and to contact clinicians via secure online messaging.

In its response, a trust spokesperson said it was “committed to using digital services to underpin better care, whether that’s in the community or in the patient’s home.

“The patient portal was included from the outset, as we believe that this will give patients and clinicians access to the right information to deliver great care, irrespective of the setting.”

Other elements of the investment with Cerner include hosting, maintenance and support services and project management for the implementation of the system.

Geoff Segal, vice president and general manager for Cerner UK and Ireland said it was “delighted” with the trust’s decision. “Together, we will focus on improving outcomes and delivering the best possible care to the local community,” he said.

The trust is planning to implement Cerner “as a single implementation, with staggered deployments of the electronic medication and critical care modules” and interfacing to the HIE.

It is working to put contracts for its national programme systems to support business continuity while this is planned.

Trusts across the North, Midlands and East of England that received ‘strategic’ and ‘interim’ systems as part of the programme see the contracts for these systems end on 7 July.