Guernsey awards EPR contract to TrakHealth
- 26 July 2007
The Health & Social Services Department of Guernsey has awarded TrakHealth a ten-year deal to provide all healthcare providers on the island with an integrated electronic patient records (EPR) system.
The integrated EPR, based on a system called TrakCare, will be used to support the delivery of comprehensive health and social care services to the 62,000 people living on the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Alderney.
The islands are independent of the UK’s National Health Service and having reached the end of a 15 year contract with Electronic Data Systems (EDS), decided they needed a system that would provide integrated community-wide electronic patient records for the 62,000 population.
Keith Sirett, project manager for the Health & Social Services Department in Guernsey, told E-Health Insider: “We had a good system with EDS which covered some of the areas we want looking at, but not all – it had a patient administration system, theatre system, midwifery system and a small part of pharmacy dispensing. However, EDS weren’t sure whether or not they could continue with us, which we took as a trigger to look elsewhere.
“We went out to tender and have been in discussions for six months and feel that TrakHealth’s TrakCare is the ideal solution for us, especially so because the health department will soon be merged with social care, community and mental health and children’s care. We needed a system that could integrate systems together and TrakHealth have demonstrated to us that this can be achieved.”
Initially, Guernsey will focus on replacing the EDS systems currently in place. The contract will only apply to secondary care services at the moment as primary care is delivered by private providers in the Channel Islands.
Users have been consulted throughout, and Sirett stressed that they have put together a strong implementation team to ensure that the system is one that clinicians find as user friendly as possible.
“Inevitably, there may well be a little resistance to changes in workflow arrangements, but we have worked throughout this process to ensure that clinicians get what they want and have had an implementation team working with them throughout the process of consultation. This will help patient care get a lot more co-ordinated and structured for all involved. Systems and hardware will be replaced, but quality of care will improve.”
“We will begin by replacing all the EDS systems currently in place, and then at a later date, we will develop community systems, systems for children, social services systems and order comms. Towards the end of the initial contract, we hope to be able to implement electronic prescribing.
“At present, most services are based acutely in Guernsey and Alderney, but that is going to change and services will develop as change is announced. At the end of it all, we want one single patient record for all of our services.”
The deal has been formally unveiled today and first implementations are scheduled to begin on 1 April 2008.
TrakCare is a web-based, patient-centric healthcare information system, launched in 2002 and used around the world, it is comprised of a comprehensive portfolio of application modules, including patient administration, clinicals, departmental, and community solutions.
TrakHealth, which is owned by InterSystems, say they are fully prepared for the data migration and integration challenges ahead of them as they begin replacing legacy systems and training staff on the new ways of working.
Regional director for TrakHealth, Bill Mackie, told EHI: “Guernsey are quite advanced with their IT investments in the healthcare settings, and we feel confident that we can help to ensure that we easily migrate the data from the old EDS system and re-store it giving each patient a unique patient identifier using the Patient Master Index.
“TrakCare incorporates the InterSystems Ensemble rapid integration platform, enabling TrakCare modules to easily and seamlessly connect to Guernsey’s existing specialist systems that include TechniData Laboratory, HSS Radiology, and GE PACS as well as new systems from JAC for finance and ordering, and eventually e-prescribing, CSE Servelec for community and mental health system RiO, and CliniSys for chemotherapy to be delivered as part of the TrakHealth contract.”
Mackie added: “This will provide Guernsey with the flexibility to provide a complete Electronic Health Record for every single one of the 62,000 people living in these Channel Islands."
Links
Health & Social Services Department in Guernsey
