System C buys Bluestar

System C has announced it has bought health RFID specialist Bluestar, the latest in a series of acquisitions by the company.

The latest deal suggests System C, which has in recent years been best known for installing software developed by other vendors, retains clear ambition to offer healthcare customers a broad range of its own software.

The acquisition is the fourth in the past two years. Last year System C merged with Perigon Healthcare to launch a consultancy service.

In January 2008 System C bought maternity software firm Care Records from medical equipment manufacturer Huntleigh Healthcare and IQ Systems Services, a provider of specialist clinical systems to the independent healthcare sector.

System C will initially pay £400,000 in cash for Bluestar, with up to a further £2.6m over the next three years dependent on performance.

Dr Ian Denley, chief executive of System C, told E-Health Insider: “We have some resources but not as many as we would like to bring technologies to a wider audience. By acquiring Bluestar we now have the complimentary services and products to do that.”

Dr Denley said that the company would continue to look at further possible acquisitions.  "We do intend to keep looking and continue to explore different health companies, we don’t want to just do a roll-out of health products for the sake of it so are being very selective."

Bluestar is a specialist developer and supplier of IT solutions including the Pathfinder RFID system for tracking equipment and patients, together with the Kings infection control system and the IGFlow information governance product.

Denley said that work is already underway to provide IGFlow, to help providers use the correct process when managing confidential patient data.

System C will prioritise integrating its existing products with Bluestar’s RFID technology. Bluestar last year began an asset tracking pilot at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. 

"The technology will take off, tracking gives the ability to do all kinds of things in the hospital environment that at the moment aren’t done very well,” predicted Dr Denley.

He added: “We’re going to be working on this straight away, people don’t realise the benefits that RFID can bring so we are already looking at putting benefits cases from existing sites together to show how it can improve efficiency.”

He added: “We intend to industrialise IGFlow and deploy it as a data centre hosted service to multiple trusts and possibly to local governments and the police. We are making this our key priority and expect it to happen over the next month or two.”

System C says it will use its scale and market presence to bring Bluestar technologies to a wider audience by integrating and selling them alongside its established healthcare computer software.

Other Bluestar products include Versasuite, a flexible clinical electronic patient record and Caldicott, a mapping guidance system offering information governance and support.

Tony Corkett, founder and chief executive of Bluestar, said: “System C’s excellent track record in the development of healthcare IT solutions, combined with their proven deployment capability, is a perfect match for us.”

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