EPR key to improvement planned at Princess Alexandra

Investment in a £10m electronic patient record system is key to the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s goal to become one of the best local hospitals in England, its IT director has said.

 

The trust has gone out to tender for the electronic patient record system, which it hopes to have in place by March 2014. The contract, which it hopes to award towards the end of August, will be for a minimum of ten years.

 

The tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, says the EPR should include a patient administration system, A&E system, maternity information system, order communications and results reporting, e-prescribing, and a clinical portal including patient and community access.

 

The Essex-based Trust has also specified that the core system should be able to expand over time to provide “new functionality and functionality currently provided by specialist departmental systems, interfaced to [the patient administration system]."

 

Its head of IT, Anthony Lundrigan, told ICT informatics site E-Health Insider that initial cost estimates were £6m for application licenses and supplier professional implementation services and £4m for support and hosting.

 

The Trust will also explore the use of data warehousing, care pathway management, and chronic disease management including registers and costing as part of the tender. “The trust also requires the provision of associated systems implementation services including, but not limited to, data migration, project management, technical implementation, interfacing and integration, training, documentation, support and maintenance,” the tender adds.