Northumbria held up by data migration

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has found that data migration will take longer than expected within its project to develop a full electronic patient record.

In November, the trust launched the implementation of a ‘single view’ portal in collaboration with Orion Health.

It has also entered into a contract with Stalis to replace its ageing McKesson patient administration system.

The new Silverlink PAS will be integrated into the portal to create a full electronic patient record.

The contract with Stalis includes the provision of its CareXML data migration tool, which is being used to transfer patient data into a data warehouse to support the creation of in-depth business intelligence reports.

However, the trust has underestimated the resources required for the migration and has delayed its completion date until March.

Recent board papers say the data migration project has been held up by the "sheer length of time" it is taking to make sure each data item is identified, logged and mapped to the equivalent data field in the CareXML product.

“As the project progressed, it became clear that this stage needed to be extended from only data items necessary for reporting and commissioning, to all PAS data items that may potentially be used operationally across the trust.”

The update goes on to say that this data migration project is the most critical part of the project and cannot be curtailed because it will provide the foundations for the Silverlink PAS.

“Anything but a forensic approach to this work threatens the successful operation of the new PAS and commissioner confidence in the trust’s data.”

The trust is also planning to use tools available in the CareXML product to develop ward scorecards.

The replacement of the current McKesson PAS with the new Silverlink system is expected to be completed this year, with a go-live planned for November.