Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust has awarded a ten year contract to deliver an integrated clinical and administrative system that will transform the delivery of care to 270,000 people in Walsall and neighbouring areas.
The new system is based on System C’s Global Digital Exemplar blueprint and will replace the current Lorenzo PAS and several other clinical and departmental systems. It will remodel the digital support available to clinicians, improve mobile working, better support the management and flow of patients through the Trust and further integrate Walsall with the wider care community. The new systems will go live over the next 12 months.
The project will include:
- Replacing the core legacy PAS with System C’s Medway PAS, ED module, patient kiosks and integrated business intelligence. This will provide Walsall with a single master patient index and the APIs/microservices required to integrate the PAS with the clinical systems which will be extended with fully integrated Medway Patient Flow.
- Upgrading the existing e-observations system to cover all beds with additional modules and fully integrate it with the Medway PAS and other clinical systems. Nurses will be able to update bed states automatically from the e-observations system as part of the clinical workflow and observations will be embedded into clinical solutions.
- Replacing the existing Ormis theatre management system with the Medway theatres system powered by Bluespier’s theatre management.
- The project will also see the development of an integrated health and care record for the local population through the new Walsall Together Partnership.
“We are excited to get started,” said Dr Muhammad Shabab Javed, chief clinical information officer and consultant. “We have high aspirations for digital transformation and System C has a solid and proven digital framework to fulfil the Trust’s plans.”
The contract was awarded following a competitive tender process using the Gateshead QE Facilities framework. “We selected System C because their products are really high quality, because their blueprint gives us a clear route towards a full EPR and because they have a strong and clear approach to genuine partnership, It was really important that we selected a technology partner that had a proven track record successful deployments” said Daren Fradgley, director of strategy and improvement for Walsall Healthcare. “Our teams are looking forward to working together on this project.”
Daren explained that the Trust had earlier conducted a staff survey to ask about satisfaction with hospital computer systems. “The staff told us they were ready for a change and would happily embrace new technologies that the market has to offer. This gave us the mandate for change and since then the clinical voice has been very strong.
“Walsall is an ambitious Trust with lots of energy and we are delighted to have been selected as their partner in this project,” said Markus Bolton, joint chief executive of System C.
