East Suffolk and North Essex pick Epic as preferred EPR supplier

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust has chosen Epic as preferred supplier in their procurement for an Electronic Patient Record (EPR).

Digital Health News understands that Epic emerged as the clear winner in the EPR tender evaluation, but the procurement has still yet to obtain full business case approval by the trust board. 

The preferred supplier selection marks a key step in the trust’s ambitious programme to boot-strap its digital maturity, moving from two older EPRs to a single system.  

The trust confirmed to Digital Health news that the EPR tender evaluation had been completed, but that it was unable to comment any further. 

The EPR programme, which began in 2022, underpins the trust’s digital strategy which aims to enable the trusts to rapidly achieve HIMSS EMRAM level five digital maturity and the minimum digital foundations.

The trust’s IT strategy says the new EPR “will become the core health information system, allowing the sharing of data, interoperability and integration which is required to support working at a system level and deliver ongoing transformation and innovation”. 

The EPR programme, according to the Digital Health Intelligence database, will see the trust replace legacy EPR systems supplied by Dedalus and System C.   

In 2021 the trust was one of seven named as working with NHSX, the digital agency since folded into NHS England, to centrally procure EPR systems under the Digital Aspirant Programme, receiving seed funding to develop its EPR strategy. 

The trust was later named as one of the least digitally mature trusts in NHS England’s digital maturity and levelling-up programme.  

Digital Health News understands that Epic and other short-listed bidders, believed to include Cerner and System C, were notified in September, with the stand still period for any legal challenges now completed.   

A full business case is now before the Board for final approval, before being sent to NHS England for national approval. A final contract award is still likely to be several months away. 

Epic went live across Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust at the start of October, in the largest EPR project in London. 

In the US Epic has recently picked up high-profile wins including Intermountain Healthcare and University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre (UPMC).