Digital Health’s monthly roundup of contracts and go lives

Our November roundup of contracts and go lives features news from Barts Health NHS Trust and University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust agreeing a deal with CardMedic.

Barts Health signs deal with Sectra

The beginning of the month saw Barts Health sign a deal with Sectra to start the roll out of a digital pathology network across four hospital sites.

Powered by software from Sectra, the network will help enhance patient diagnosis and speed up turnaround times within the trust. It will save specialists time spent preparing and screening slides, helping to remove delays to the diagnosis process.

The deployment of the network will be funded by Barts Charity and will take place at Royal London, St Bartholomew’s, Whipps Cross and Newham General, with the potential for it to be expanded to other trusts.

Birmingham Community Healthcare goes live with ‘test bed’ launch of EPR

There was also some big news coming out of the West Midlands, as Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust went live with an electronic patient record in one of its wards as part of a ‘test bed’ launch.

Ward 5 at Moseley Hall Hospital is the first inpatient facility to trial the new electronic system for recording and accessing patient information within the trust.

Clinical staff based on Ward 5 will work in partnership with digital technology services and the information governance team at the trust to help refine the EPR ahead of a launch across all inpatient areas at Birmingham Community Healthcare.

University Hospitals Sussex agrees deal with CardMedic to deploy app

Over in Sussex, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust agreed a deal with CardMedic to deploy an app to assist NHS staff in communicating with patients who have hearing or sight disabilities.

The CardMedic app was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic to help healthcare professionals care for patients with hearing, sight or other disabilities that could hamper vital communication.

It offers online flashcards to help guide patients through common clinical interactions. By doing so it can help improve the patient experience and enhance the care they receive.

The five-year contract will see UH Sussex NHS Trust roll out the app across the whole business domain of the Trust, which was formed from the merger of Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Bright and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Scarborough Hull York Pathology Service partners with CliniSys

In another signed deal, Scarborough Hull York Pathology Service partnered with CliniSys to roll out its WinPath Enterprise laboratory information management system (LIMS) with the hope of creating a more seamless service.

The release of a single LIMS will strengthen the already collaborative relationship that has been built between the regional pathology network’s four laboratories in Hull, York and Scarborough.

Its deployment will complement a secondary linked project, which is anticipated to go live next year. This will see local GPs use a single instance of CliniSys Integrated Clinical Environment (ICE) to order tests.

North Tees and Hartlepool turns to TrakCare for high-risk antibiotics

Finally, the end of the month saw North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust turning to InterSystems’ electronic prescribing and medicines administration technology, TrakCare for two high-risk antibiotics.

The trust has replaced its paper prescribing for specialist antibiotics for newborn babies with TrakCare to ensure clinical teams have visibility of all the information they need to make safe and timely decisions over care.

The move to the electronic prescribing and medicines administration (EPMA) system will safeguard the health of vulnerable patients like newborn babies and support healthcare workers in their decision making.

The trust now plans to extend the use of TrakCare to incorporate other specialist medicines charts and processes.