Princess Alexandra delays Cosmic EPR

Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust has delayed the go-live of its Cosmic electronic patient record system from Swedish company Cambio.

The trust signed a ten year contract with the supplier to deploy the system in April last year and will become the first UK trust to deploy the system.

 It originally aimed to go live before March this year as its McKesson Totalcare patient administration contract was due to expire.

The trust then set the April go-live date, but Princess Alexandra’s chief information officer Anthony Lundrigan told EHI that the trust has decided to delay the go live further.

McKesson has agreed to extend the support for the system until the trust has gone live with the Cosmic EPR.

“We have taken advantage of this extension to add more transformation activities to our schedule, these activities previously having been compressed by the McKesson deadline,” said Lundrigan.

“We have commenced training and hope to be live with Cosmic later this spring but do not feel any pressure to rush the date.”

He added that because this is a first of type deployment in the UK, the trust “needed to do extra work in conjunction with our supplier Cambio, which is now nearly complete.”

In 2012, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust cancelled its deployment of Cosmic after spending nearly £800,000 with the company to develop the product for the UK after both the trust and the company “mutually agreed not to progress with the implementation phase of the project.”

According to Princess Alexandra’s board papers, the trust has spent £4.7m in capital expenditure on the EPR deployment to date.

The trust’s original OJEU notice said the trust wants a patient administration system, A&E system, maternity information system, order communications and results reporting, e-prescribing, and a clinical portal including patient and community access.

The trust has also chosen to add electronic whiteboard technology and mobile applications to the initial implementation.

It is also looking at the possibility to expand the scope of its work to include the management of community care in partnership with local GPs.

EHI has approached Cambio for comment but has not received any response.