BT to deliver Theatre Manager in London

BT has signed an agreement with specialist developers, Picis, to deliver new operating theatre management systems to six hospital trusts in London under Connecting for Health.

Picis Theatre Manager is a British version of the Picis OR Manager, used in operating rooms across the US. Theatre Manager will be implemented to provide complete surgical scheduling, patient tracking, inter-operative nursing documentation and waiting list management to the six as yet unnamed London trusts, which comprise 12 hospitals and more than 120 operating theatres.

The agreement follows more than two years of close collaboration between Picis, BT and NHS Connecting for Health. According to Picis, end-users at several London hospital trusts were involved in the talks.

E-Health Insider has been unable to confirm which six trusts will receive the system, but understands that implementation is scheduled to begin next month.

A spokesperson for Picis said: “Theatre Manager contains a number of modules and functions developed specifically for use in the National Health Service by Picis UK Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Picis, Inc. Picis has a fully staffed office in London to meet the demands of NPfIT, the largest healthcare IT project in the world.”

Todd Cozzens, Picis' president, said: “Picis is proud to build upon our proven track record of successful delivery of our operating room automation solutions to England's National Health Service.

“Our close collaboration with BT to meet the demanding requirements of the NHS will enable these six London trusts to help make their surgical operations more efficient.”

Gareth Tipton, commercial director for the BT cluster, added: “We are confident that our collaboration with Picis has culminated in a robust solution that meets both the needs of the user and the exacting specifications of NHS Connecting for Health.”

In 2005, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust went live with Theatre Manager ahead of its original schedule. This activation included surgical scheduling and inter-operative documentation at all facilities.

UCLH went live in March last year but had chosen the Picis system outside of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). The six trusts will be the first to get the Theatre Manager under the programme, delivered by BT, local service provider for London.

Sian Ryan, EPR product manager at UCLH, told E-Health Insider: "We're currently working on making full use of [Theatre Manager's] functionality and will be rolling out new elements over the next nine months. The Trusts taking Picis as part of the national programme are getting a sound product which will provide them with clear benefits for their theatre management and patient care."