Trust signs contract with Cerner to provide major Electronic Patient Record programme

22nd Sep 2016

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust has committed to major investments in their information technology, including a significant infrastructure programme and procurement of a new Electronic Patient Record (EPR).

Following investment approval from NHS Improvement, the Trust has signed the contract with Cerner who are now working closely with the Trust on the implementation plan.

The EPR brings significant benefits to the Trust. Clinicians will be able to deliver better care for patients as they will be able to see information about a patient in one place including their medical history and any allergies. The implementation of the EPR and the Cerner’s Health Information Exchange (HIE) platform will provide access to other health and care sector organisations beyond the hospital with consolidated views of the patients longitudinal record within the local system.  The time saved by using the new EPR will allow clinicians to spend more time with their patients and make better use of healthcare data by removing silos, to improve care co-ordination, quality and safety.The EPR system will reduce the volume of paper records that are needed, enabling the Trust to move towards being paper free at the point of care and becoming a true digital hospital

Cerner’s system will include EPR functionality for the Trust’s emergency department, theatres, e-prescribing, clinical support, critical care, bed management, patient portal and clinical documentation. Hosting, maintenance and support services, integration with community systems and project management for the implementation of the system will also be part of this deployment.

Dr Pete Davies, Chief Clinical Information Officer for Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust said: “I wholeheartedly believe that selection of Cerner as our delivery partner is welcome news and this gives the Digital Delivery Programme Board great confidence that their approach will be a significant enabler towards achieving our vision.  This is going to represent a quantum leap in our capacity to provide safer care, to reduce unnecessary variation and to improve patient experience.”

Geoff Segal, Vice President & General Manager for Cerner UK and Ireland, said: “We are very happy to start working with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. Our main focus throughout the entire project will be to enable better and safer care for their patients and community. We share the vision that transformation must be clinically led in order to achieve the best outcomes for patients and staff. Our partnership will aim to create a truly digital hospital with patients at the centre of everything we do.”

Implementation will begin this Autumn and will be divided in two phases.

ENDS

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