East Lancashire Hospitals selects Cerner as preferred EPR supplier

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has chosen Cerner as its preferred supplier to provide the trust with a new electronic patient record.

The new Cerner Millennium EPR will replace a venerable patient administration system that has been in use at the trust for over 30-years.

The trust confirmed to Digital Health News that following a competitive procurement it had selected Cerner as its preferred EPR supplier.

Suppliers involved in the selection process have been notified of the decision and the 10-day cooling off period has been completed.

Financial details of the contract and its duration have not yet been disclosed.

Cerner Millennium would mark the first implementation of an EPR at East Lancashire hospitals, which currently uses a combination of paper records and CSC’s (now DCX Technologies) CliniCom/PatientCentre patient administration system (PAS).

The long-serving CliniCom PAS has been in place at the trust since 1986.

Digital Health News reported back in August 2017 that East Lancashire Hospitals was tendering for an EPR.

In an August board paper, Michelle Brown, the deputy director of finance, said the trust was seeking an electronic patient record system that would allow it to treat patients more effectively and “give our healthcare staff quicker and easier access to up-to-date information about the treatment and care of our patients.”

The implementation of the new EPR formulates part of the trust’s 2016-2021 informatics strategy, under which East Lancashire Hospitals aims to integrate additional digital solutions – including electronic portals, e-whiteboards, video conferencing and unified communications – into its integrated health record system.

Board papers from July 2017 reveal that £1.25 million had been set aside by the trust to develop IT infrastructure prior to the implementation of an EPR.

According to the Digital Health Intelligence database, the Cerner Millennium EPR is in use by 22 NHS trusts in England, including six in the north of England.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust both awarded contacts for Cerner Millennium back in 2015, in a deal worth £30 million.