EDM: Southern hospitals pick Kainos

A group of three southern acute trusts has chosen Kainos to supply an electronic document management system and clinical portal in contracts worth nearly £8 million and partly funded by central government.

The SAcP Sussex Collaborative Systems Programme is a collaboration between Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and Queen Victoria NHS Foundation Trust.

The trusts went to tender in late 2013 for an EDM system and clinical portal, including hosting, deployment and support.

Having decided on Kainos, each will award separate contracts individually worth £2.6 million, £2.4 million and £2.7 million.

Medical director at Western Sussex, Dr George Findlay, said the trust expects to go-live in July this year.

“We are looking forward to introducing electronic document management which will help our clinicians to record and access information about their patients more efficiently, freeing up more time for direct patient care.

“Kainos was selected from a number of suppliers because they proposed innovative solutions which we believe are well suited to our requirements.”

Nigel Hutchinson, head of Kainos Evolve said the deployment will include the ability for staff to access the system via iPad: “bringing information to clinicians wherever and whenever they need it”.

“This programme will enhance and improve patient care for a sizeable patient population and we look forward to hearing of the benefits to patients and clinicians in the coming months,” he added.

The Sussex collaborative makes up one of six groups of acute trusts in the south, formed to invest in a variety of new IT systems.

The trusts involved got nothing from the National Programme for IT and together have secured £80m in central funding for the new systems, with another £100m due to be invested locally.

A Freedom of Information response received by Digital Health in June 2015 says that payments totalling nearly £3 million had been authorised to the three trusts involved in the Sussex collaborative at that time.

Read more about Western Sussex' IT plans and developments in Features.