Northumbria successfully implements new patient administration system
Stalis solution takes patient care into the 21st Century
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has successfully implemented a new patient administration system (PAS).
Silverlink PAS replaced the previous McKesson TotalCARE system, which the trust had been using for 17 years.
The trust had been planning for the new system since the seven-year contract was awarded to Stalis in December 2011. It included the use of the STALIS CareXML product for the data migration and business intelligence systems.
The new PAS system ensures all patient activity is accurately recorded including patients attending A&E, those admitted to hospital and patients being treated in outpatient clinics.
The new system has enabled the trust to embed new standards for how patient pathways are recorded across its eight hospital and community sites.
The project was also used by Northumbria Healthcare as an opportunity to introduce new trustwide data standards, ensuring that all aspects of a patient’s activity are accurately coded.
These standards go beyond what is required nationally and play an essential role in ensuring appropriate patient care.
The implementation programme included extensive project, data migration and contingency planning and a training programme for more than 2,000 PAS users in the trust.
Mark Thomas, director of health informatics at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This was a great achievement and was only possible due to a lot of hard work and long hours put in by our staff, both in the development of the system and its implementation.
“The implementation involved a lot of planning and represented a significant change for many staff, especially those who have been using the old system since it was put in place.
“High-quality data is an essential part of delivering high-quality and safe patient care and we place great emphasis on making sure we capture robust data so that we can continuously review and improve our services for patients.
“I think we will very soon realise the benefits of the new system both for users and our patients.”
Christine Whitehouse, managing director of Stalis, added: “The key objectives of the project were to ensure the continuity of safe patient care and to ensure downstream clinical systems were supported by the new patient master index, minimising the risks to the trust’s very diligent reporting. Stalis, its sub-contractors and the trust teams all worked together extremely well and effectively in a true spirit of co-operation to meet the objectives.
“We are now looking forward to working with the trust further to find benefits and take advantage of the new platform in support of the continuing strong and excellent record of patient care that Northumbria Healthcare delivers.”
- Companies:
- McKesson Information Solutions
- Stalis
- Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
