Kettering signs System C for ‘ambitious’ 10-year digital programme

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has awarded a 10-year contract to System C to supply an integrated clinical record and administration system. 

Through the partnership, the trust will provide mobile clinical and decision-making support to clinicians to improve the flow of patients through its main 600-bed hospital, as well as its outlying clinics.

The trust’s aim is to improve care provided to patients by fully digitising its patient record system.

It will be doing this by adopting System C’s blueprint for full hospital computerisation, starting with the deployment of System C’s Vitals e-observations and CareFlow Connect care co-ordination software.

Both the e-obs and care co-ordination elements are due to go live before Christmas.

Andy Callow, who joined Kettering as chief digital information officer in January, said: “We have put in place an ambitious digital programme to improve both the patient and staff experience.  Implementation of the EPR is one of the key enablers of our digital journey.”

Kettering General Hospital provides acute healthcare services for the people of North Northamptonshire and South Leicestershire, and treats approximately 377,000 people a year.

The trust will be building on its existing Medway PAS in a “demanding” 18-month deployment.

The System C blueprint is a hospital electronic patient record (EPR) and care community-wide system.

It consists of a patient administration system (PAS) and clinical systems including prescribing, results, orders, alerting, decision support, handover, noting, task management, e-observations and messaging.

The care community element includes shared records, care plans, cross-community messaging and referral; a patient portal and patient engagement solutions; population health management and business intelligence.

Markus Bolton, joint chief executive of System C, said: “The System C blueprint is all about helping our customers achieve a rapid increase in digital maturity to become fully computerised and paper-free hospitals integrated with the surrounding care community.  We are delighted that Kettering General Hospital has joined this programme.”

Kettering will also be deploying System C’s clinical workspace, which gives clinicians most of the information they need for a patient in one place, from their smartphone or desktop.

This will provide a single source of information regarding areas such as prescribing, observations, assessments, results, orders, care pathways and communication, picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and electronic document management system (EDMS).

The trust will be installing MediViewer, an EDMS from IMMJ Systems, which is fully interoperable with System C’s EPR software.

Contextual access

The integration of the EDMS will enable clinicians to access patients’ historical medical records directly from within the EPR user interface and in context with the current patient view.

Clinicians on the move will also be able to access MediViewer via any mobile device, providing faster and more intuitive input process.

Max Smith, chief revenue officer of IMMJ Systems, added: “We are delighted to be a part of Kettering Hospital’s digital programme in partnership with System C.

“The speed, ease of use and powerful functionality of MediViewer will play an integral part in improving the hospital’s staff and patient experience at the point of care as well as increasing the Trusts digital maturity.”

Meanwhile, Kettering will be replacing its existing theatres software with the System C theatres offering, developed by Bluespier.

Stuart van Rooyen, managing director of Bluespier, commented: “Bluespier is delighted to be part of this exciting digital project in partnership with System C.  The theatres element of this installation will help improve resource scheduling, patient tracking and theatre utilisation, supporting Kettering Hospital with providing the best possible outcomes for patients even in the most demanding environment.”

Read more:

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• Hillingdon Hospitals deploys EDMS across emergency department
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