Extract from E-Health Insider 15 March
2007
The delays in implementation of the Cerner Millenium
patient administration system have helped to make the system "fit
for purpose and more robust", according to the IT lead at
Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust.
The Mid Hampshire Deployment Family, consisting
of three trusts: Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust,
part of Hampshire Partnership Trust and a part of Hampshire Primary
Care Trust, went live with Millenium Release 0 over the weekend
of 10-11 February.
The go-live was not without teething problems
with 300 calls a day to the helpdesk in the first week, together
with initial reporting and printing issues. The trust says these
have now been resolved.
The Cerner Millennium Release 0 system, also
know as the "foundation release", included a new Patient
Administration System (PAS), a new computer system for A&E,
part of the maternity department and parts of the theatre department.
Blood and Radiology tests are also now being ordered electronically.
Local Service Provider, Fujitsu told the Commons
Public Accounts Committee last summer that the Winchester deployment
would occur on 25 September, however the trust told E-Health Insider:
"The Deployment Family made the decision to re-plan their
go-live date following lessons from previous R0 go-lives in 2006.
In particular the issues with the software around reporting."
Winchester's managing director for clinical
support services and asset management, Peter Knight told E-Health
Insider: "The delays have been very helpful, it helps us
get to grips with the systems in depth, especially in terms of
planning and training."
Knight added: "There have been minor nuances
we have had to deal with, but extensive testing reduced the risk.
We expected to find all of these on day one, two and three, and
of the issues we have found, we worked with Cerner and the problems
that have arisen have been fixed rapidly."
He admitted that the trust was cautious before
deploying the system but said that through close working with
Fujitsu they ensured that they received the system they wanted,
with the functionality they needed.
Knight explained to EHI that the trust chose
a Saturday to deploy the system to minimise disruption for staff
and patients. He said that staff have since been fully trained
onto the system and issues that have arisen, including reporting
issues and printer sharing faults, were reported to Fujitsu and
Cerner straight away and swiftly dealt with.
Crucially, he says the new PAS will be able
to produce the necessary statutory reports required by the DH
and are able to audit their data more easily. Knight says that
the concerns the trust had raised with Cerner have been fixed
and that in his view the system is fit for purpose for deployment
in other trusts.
"With Cerner on side, any trust can take
up the Millennium system and have a smooth go-live with a fit
and robust system. Issues are dealt with quickly and staff are
able to get used to the system quickly," Knight told EHI.
To support the go-live, Winchester implemented
IT business management software from Touchpaper. It included a
ServiceDesk solution that provided integration with Fujitsu's
central service desk providing automated communication of service
requests, delivery of accurate, real-time information on the status
of requests and removing any delays in the LSP receiving requests.
Knight said that the software had helped to
ease frustrations amongst staff. In the first week from go-live,
the desk received 300 calls a day, but that has since gone down
to less than 100 per day—many of which are to do with security
such as forgotten passwords.
He acknowledges that without their patience,
the deployment would not have worked and called the staff on the
ground "amazing" for their tolerance.
Administration staff saw the benefits of the
new PAS straight, says Knight. Once the system was live, outpatient
staff noticed how they were able to get through the volumes of
patients coming in with split queues to register people in faster.
In September, the trust also installed JAC's
Electronic Prescribing and Medication Administration system combined
with their JAC Pharmacy Management module to provide a fully integrated
medication management solution.
Knight told EHI that the JAC system now managed
the entire cycle of medication management for the trust, and so
work was carried out to ensure it interfaced with the new PAS.
Initially, the system had problems making patients visible to
staff, but Cerner worked with the trust to ensure this functionality
was corrected.
Overall, Knight feels that deployment and use
of the medication management system "went as well as we could
have hoped" after a year of upfront and support planning.
He said: "What's interesting is comparing
the go-live of our old system, which took a year, this go-live
has actually only taken a month."
Offering advice to other trust preparing to
go-live Knight says: "Make sure you vigorously go through
sign-off and training, plan go-lives strategically so that they
meet your criteria. You should also get clinical engagement because
without it, it is difficult to keep staff enthused. You should
also plan a support mechanism as well and work with your LSP as
a solid team. Finally, the trust needs ownership, and should put
its money where its mouth is."
Winchester has now been named by other trusts
as the pilot site for order comms going live with Millenium R0.
Cerner told investors last month that through
Fujitsu it had now deployed Millennium to 20% of trusts in the
South of England.
A 2007 E-Health-Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
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