Blackpool: 'All systems go for Alert'

The board of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has approved the proposal for Alert Life Sciences to become the supplier of the trust’s electronic patient record system.

Philip Graham, head of IM&T, told E-Health Insider that the case for Vision - the name given to the project by trust staff - had been approved and it was “all systems go.”

Last month, EHI announced that the decision to contract Alert to supply an EPR had been agreed by the trust’s information governance committee.

The trust board meeting that approved the full business case and implementation plan for the project was held last Thursday.

Speaking from Portugal, where the scheduling of the contract is being finalised with Alert, Graham told EHI: “We are starting by implementing in A&E at the Lancashire Cardiac Centre (outpatients and inpatients).

"Alert has a very mature ER [emergency room] system and we feel that staff across the trust, but especially in A&E, are very forward thinking when it comes to making the changes required."

The trust will begin rolling-out the system at the beginning of December. A&E will be followed by the clinical decision unit. Then, over the next two years, the system will be deployed across the rest of the trust.

The trust’s chief executive, Aidan Kehoe, will be meeting with Alert on 9 November to finalise the ASCC contract.

Kehoe said: “The Vision project will take patient care to a whole new level. It will benefit our patients by making comprehensive information, such as test results, medication orders and progress notes, easily and immediately accessible to the doctors and nurses who are caring for them at all stages of treatment from a minor problem to an emergency incident.

“Most staff will already use a computer system as part of the provision of care in their daily routine, but with Vision this will be expanded to include a number of procedures such as ordering prescriptions, care pathways and clinical documentation.”

Although the trust would not disclose the amount of the contract he said it was “a multi-million pound change management project with great benefits, both quantitative and qualitative.”

Cesar Guimaraes, chief operating officer and member of the board of directors of Alert said in a statement: “The implementation of a state of the art electronic health record in the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will be a landmark in the advancement of medical care that will be appreciated in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

“We are committed to improving health in the region and are honoured with the opportunity to work with the trust's team to serve the local community.”

Link: Alert