The Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) has announced plans to move to a single electronic patient record across the region.
The procurement is being led by the Lancashire Procurement Cluster (hosted by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust), with the programme to include Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.
Last month the ICS announced the programme as part of its five-year strategic vision to improve the lives and healthcare outcomes for its 1.8m citizens. One of the aims of the move to a single electronic patient record is to support integrated care across its health and social care system.
The ICS said: “Our aim is to create a collaborative, responsive health and social care system, implementing new models of care that benefit our citizens and colleagues. We wish to provide equitable access to services according to need and reduce unwarranted variation.”
The procurement process for a core clinical system for all their acute hospitals will start in late November 2020. Bids from the market are expected by 24 December 2020, with an aim to have a contract in place by the end of March 2021.
A Clinical Systems Roadmap has been produced as part of the 10-15-year programme of change, and includes three components:
- Core Clinical System – This is the main component of an Electronic Patient Record within a hospital setting. It holds the bulk of the clinical record and supports hospital administration.
- Common Departmentals – These systems are fully integrated into the core clinical system, providing bespoke functionality for a department or pathway e.g. Pathology, Ophthalmology and Maternity. They are the same solution, deployed consistently across all Trusts.
- Data Orchestration Layer – This integrates all the data related to a patient or individual. It also provides ICS partners with a common set of digital functions, supporting technology enabled care, data analytics and patient-held records.
The ICS is using the Health Systems Support Framework for procurement, a purpose-built mechanism for integrated care systems to address their digital needs.
In September a pre-market engagement event was held and was attended by approximately 200 supplier professionals.
