Humber confirms Lorenzo go-live

Humber NHS Foundation Trust has confirmed its successful “go-live” with Lorenzo and issued more details about its implementation of the electronic patient record system.

According to a statement issued to eHealth Insider by the trust, more than 600 staff across 50 sites are now using the system, for which it is now the mental health ‘early adopter’, to record clinical activity.

The statement says that local service provider CSC has provided the trust with “a patient administration system with clinical applications for care management, task management, internal referrals, clinical documentation and letters, ward attenders, document scanning, and access plans to monitor waiting times and care pathways.”

Chief executive David Snowdon said that it was an “exciting time” for the trust and that the go-live was the “first step in a major programme” that will improve the way it treats patients for many years to come.

“The ‘go live’ of the new system has gone very smoothly and we couldn’t have done this without the support and dedication of our staff," he said.  

“We are embracing this new technology and are looking forward to developing Lorenzo further to improve services for our patients and cut down on paperwork for our staff.

“However, it is still early days and we will be monitoring the system closely over the next few weeks to make sure everything is going according to plan."

CSC was contracted to deliver Lorenzo to trusts across the North, Midlands and East of England as part of the National Programme for IT in the NHS, but the project has been subject to numerous, severe delays.

The scheduled ‘early adopter’ for mental health, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, pulled out last spring.

Since then, the Department of Health and CSC have been locked in negotiations about the company’s contract for the region. The latest ‘standstill’ arrangement runs out tomorrow.

Humber NHS Foundation Trust announced that it would take the early adopter slot last summer, and has always shown enthusiasm for the system.

Its latest statement says that Lorenzo provides staff with “real-time information from any location” and the trust plans to add more features to the system.

It wants to get to the point where staff will no longer have to search for notes, "as they will have all of the patient’s details immediately available, including any relevant medical history."

The statement adds that the system has been rigorously tested, and that the trust’s project team worked with doctors, nurses and national experts from NHS Connecting for Health, NHS Yorkshire and Humber, and CSC to deliver it.

The chief operating officer of CSC’s Healthcare Group, Andrea Fiumicelli, described the go-live as a “major step forward.”

“Delivering a programme of this complexity requires clear vision and collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders and Humber has carried this vision and has been a strong proponent of Lorenzo,” he said.

The trust has reported that the launch of the system has encountered very few teething problems and teams are “standing by to identify and fix any issues that might appear.”

Karen Warwick, senior nurse in Humber’s child and adolescent mental health services, was also quoted in the statement and said: “Lorenzo is a user friendly, straightforward system.

“The support team has been on hand from the very beginning and the training was clear and easy to understand. I think it’ll be much better for us.”