NHS Bury yet to sign-off on Lorenzo

NHS Bury has yet to sign-off on its deployment of Lorenzo Regional Care Release 1.9, seven months after the system went live at the north west primary care trust.

The PCT says it will now plans to switch to business as usual on 1 July, eight months after the trust went live. The trust says it has experienced a series of issues around reporting using the new care records system.

A June board paper, providing an update on the implementation of Lorenzo, highlights reporting problems and says key milestones have yet to be achieved, and as a result the deployment verification process has not been signed off.

The DVP is a formal 45 day period that starts at the go-live date of any new system and represents the NHS organisation saying it is happy with the system it has received, ticking off a series of key criteria.

NHS Bury told E-Health Insider the deployment verification criteria are "a standard set of criteria that are agreed by the NHS Connecting for Health and CSC as part of the NPfIT contract".

In November, NHS Bury accepted the Lorenzo product based on the system meeting a number of criteria during the first three weeks of use. However, the deployment verification criteria include a range of more detailed measures that are based on using the system for a longer period of time.

The board paper states: “This objective has not yet been met for Bury’s LRC1.9 project due to a few remaining challenges” and that it will not set a new target date for sign off.

Bury was the first trust to go-live with Lorenzo R1.9 in November last year and has since been followed by University Hospitals Morecambe NHS Trust at the end of May.

Problems identified by Bury as reasons for not signing off the process include “accuracy of reporting” and “persistent problems with the ten operational front-end reports.” The paper adds that “feedback from the initial user survey in November 2009 was negative.”

It also says that there have been issues with referral to treatment times and that there has been numerous system upgrades since the implementation resulting in planned system outages for 12 hour periods over weekends.

However, the PCT maintains that it will make the transition to business as usual despite the unresolved issues.

The paper states: “IM&T are developing plans in support to a business as usual organisation as of 1 July 2010 and to allow a decreased reliance in the external support received to date during the current phase of the project.”

This will include the recruitment of a system delivery manager and a project manager to lead on further deployment such a care plans.

Ann Halpin, associate director of IM&T at NHS Bury, said in a statement to E-Health Insider: “In NHS Bury, our community services are continuing to use Lorenzo to manage tasks such as recording contacts, booking appointments and recording case notes.

“As one might expect, introducing a new system has not been without its challenges, but staff have been seeing ongoing improvements. As part of the early adopter programme, the trust is continuing to work with NHS Connecting for Health, NHS North West and CSCA to further improve the system.”

Halpin went on to say NHS Bury is now looking to build on the “administrative foundation”. “For example, we are shortly to start a pilot where we will scan documents into Lorenzo reducing the amount of time and resources spent transporting documentation between sites.” A mobile Lorenzo pilot is also planned.

E-Health Insider has asked whether it could visit NHS Bury to see Lorenzo in action but has been told that it is not possible due to NHS Bury and Community Services Bury undergoing a significant amount of organisational change.

Link

Lorenzo Regional Care Implementation-Update