Tameside ties up Lorenzo implementation

Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is addressing issues with its new Lorenzo electronic patient record system, board papers reveal, but is confident that no patients have been harmed by its implementation.

A report from the trust’s chief executive to the board says that since the implementation in October, there have been several issues and concerns about the reliability of the CSC system.

However, it also says the trust is working on resolving the problems. “A large amount of resource remains committed on addressing issues with Lorenzo implementation across the trust,” says the report, which was given to the board at the end of November last year.

“The focus within the team remains on resolving the outstanding issues and transitioning to a ‘business as usual’ stage within the project.

“Some concerns remain with the reliability of the link between the pathology system and the Lorenzo product, which are both the responsibility of CSC. Robust business continuity processes are in place and proving effective, whilst CSC are investigating the root cause of this issue.”

The report also says that the trust has contacted Tim Donohoe, the senior responsible officer for the local service provider programmes, about the issues.

“Tim Donahoe [sic], the chief executive [sic] of the Health and Social Care Information Centre has met with the trust to obtain a firsthand understanding of the issues and to offer assistance in ensuring that the issues encountered are being addressed,” it says.

Tameside was the first trust to deploy the system under an interim agreement between CSC and the Department of Health in September 2012.

As part of the National Programme for IT, CSC was due to deliver Lorenzo to health economies across the North, Midlands and East.

The deal was signed following significant development and implementation delays. It removes CSC’s right to exclusively supply IT systems to NHS organisations in the NME, but also makes central funding available for trusts that still want to take it.

So far, eight trusts have signed up. In preparation for the go-live, Tameside scheduled 25,000 outpatient appointments using Lorenzo and transferred more than 5m data items relating to patient records.

The minutes say an “expert team” is working with departments that have issues outstanding. “The team have moved into the central booking office and pharmacy and are adopting the same methodology successfully employed within the emergency department,” it says.

The board minutes also say the trust has assured foundation trust regulator Monitor that no patients were “put at risk as a result of the implementation.”

Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust are due to deploy Lorenzo next month.