2006

iSOFT delivers EPR at Derby

Having proved a huge success in urology and surgical units, the EPR is being rolled out across all wards and departments at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and the new Derby City General Hospital. Users say the system is easy to use, saves time and is cutting costs. Nurses say being able to see test results quickly and easily is helping improve patient care.

As prime contractor, iSOFT delivered a radiology and GE PACS system within six months of the contract being signed. Already, there are 6.4 million digital images available online. iSOFT has since installed its i.CM clinical application for order communications and results reporting, ORMIS for theatres and EDIS for A&E. All of these are fully integrated with Derby’s existing Totalcare patient administration system from McKesson.

Soon, every test and x-ray will be ordered on-line with results and digital images available anywhere across the two hospitals, including wards, theatres, emergency departments and doctors’ offices. The trust will also become entirely filmless once it moves to the new hospital.

David Pearson, head of IT projects and services at Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, says the pilot system has already had a big impact. “Clinical staff are extremely enthusiastic about the system as it helps them do their jobs better and more efficiently,” he said. “Faster turnaround of test and x-ray results improves patient care naturally, but will also speed up discharges and will help to free beds earlier. The system is also eliminating duplicate tests so saves money and wasted time.

“Clinical staff like the system as it is intuitive and supports the way they work,” Pearson said. “It is clear that clinicians have had a hand in developing iSOFT’s applications and that they are designed for end-users, which is critical.”

Pearson says the EPR is part of its strategy to meet its financial obligations: “The EPR is a fundamental component for actively improving efficiency and effectiveness while driving down costs.”

iSOFT is running a managed service at Derby. It will install a new pathology system shortly and after that will deliver electronic prescribing, drugs administration and clinical documentation. A future requirement too will be for doctors to have out-of-hours access from home to make speedier decisions, advise colleagues and judge whether they need to attend the hospital.

The full roll-out of the EPR was timed to coincide with completion of the first phase of the new 1,159-bed hospital. This is being built under a £333m PFI scheme to centralise all acute services at one site with completion due in 2008. All acute services will be moved from the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary to the new hospital.   

“It was vital that iSOFT was able to work closely with our other partners to meet challenging deadlines,” David Pearson said. “Throughout the project iSOFT has worked with Skanska, the firm building the new hospital, and with the network provider in carefully planning installations of conventional and wireless networks especially for the ‘network-hungry’ PACS.”

The original contract was signed in October 2003 ahead of the National Programme for IT so Derby remains outside the programme and specifically the Eastern cluster. Pearson says there are no immediate plans to join the programme either. “We will assess the benefits and costs once an alternative strategic option is in place,” he said. “We have a contract with iSOFT until 2011 with the option to extend this for three years, so there is no immediate pressure.” He says Derby’s EPR fits with the national programme’s principle for sharing patient information as patient details are entered once and updated from any of the applications.

Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was formerly Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, but changed its name in July 2004 after achieving foundation status.

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