Ipswich live with Lorenzo

Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust has begun the phased roll-out of its Lorenzo electronic patient record system from CSC.

It went live with the first modules of the system on Sunday, which includes A&E, maternity and inpatient wards.

Yesterday the trust also began using the system in its outpatients department.

Neill Moloney, Ipswich's chief operating officer, told EHI that staff worked through the day and night to make sure that all data was captured and uploaded to the new system as quickly as possible.

“Changing a system as vital as this is a very big undertaking. It is a very well managed project, which has the full support of the hospital community,” he said.

Moloney added that members of the IT team worked as floor walkers throughout the hospital in order to solve any issues immediately.

The trust is the second to deploy Lorenzo under the revised agreement between CSC and the Department of Health, signed in September 2013.

Ipswich confirmed its intention to take CSC’s EPR in January last year as a replacement for its iSoft iPM patient administration system.

A spokesperson from CSC told EHI it had been a successful implementation.

"Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust started going live with CSC's Lorenzo EPR this weekend, with the trust's emergency department going live on Sunday 2 February followed by maternity and inpatient wards,” said the spokesperson.

“Use of the system for outpatients began on Tuesday 4 February. So far, things are going in line with plan. We continue to work with the trust to ensure a smooth introduction of the new system."

The revised deal between the DH and CSC gives NME trusts central funding for software and deployment costs if they can provide a robust business case for deploying Lorenzo.

EHI reported last year that Ipswich expected to receive nearly £14m in government funding for the system.

So far, eight trusts have confirmed that they intend to take the Lorenzo offer.

Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is next in line and is preparing to go-live with the EPR at the end of the month.

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, and George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust have also had business cases approved by the CSC LSP Programme Board and Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust have also confirmed their intention to take Lorenzo.

Karl Grundy, head of EHI Intelligence said it seemed like a natural move for Ipswich to stick with CSC.

“It made sense for Ipswich to continue to work with CSC and Lorenzo, who were the major incumbent at Ipswich supplying seven systems in the EHI Clincal Digital Maturity Index profile,” he said.

“The fact that CSC and Ipswich have worked so closely together and were moving from iPM to Lorenzo has enabled a relatively quick go-live and hopefully will enable greater integration and interoperability between systems at Ipswich in the future.”

According to EHI Intelligence, CSC’s iSoft PAS is being used in 37% of the acute trusts and five trusts which received Lorenzo under the National Programme for IT are live with the system.

These are: 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust; Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust; Humber NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust

The Health and Social Care Information Centre, which is responsible for managing the LSP contracts on behalf of the Department of Health, referred a request for comment on the Ipswich go-live to the DH, which is yet to respond.