East Sussex Healthcare selects Nervecentre for new EPR

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has become the latest acute trust to select Nervecentre as its preferred supplier for an electronic patient record (EPR).

After a detailed tendering process, the trust chose Nervecentre to drive transformation, with the contract expected to be signed in February 2025. The EPR implementation will last for two years, running from June 2025 to April 2027.

East Sussex Healthcare’s EPR programme, called EmPoweR, will bring together inpatient and outpatient care, electronic prescribing and medicines administration, order comms and theatres into a single EPR through the Nervecentre platform.

Andy Bissenden, associate director of digital at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “I’m delighted to share that the trust is taking a major step forward in our digital transformation journey.

“Having Nervecentre as our preferred supplier for our EPR will bring us a modern and truly mobile, next-generation EPR to deliver better outcomes for patients and our operational/clinical teams.”

The availability of accurate data and having a comprehensive range of EPR functions together in one place is expected to help the trust make the working lives of its staff easier and more productive, while also improving the patient experience.

The trust will be the ninth acute trust to join Nervecentre’s cloud-native platform. Other trusts to have already signed contracts with the supplier include York and Scarborough, United Lincolnshire, Northampton General, Derby and Burton, and Nottingham University.

Paul Volkaerts, chief executive of Nervecentre, said: “Nervecentre is the fastest growing EPR in the country. Its full-breadth functionality, class-leading usability, and collaborative capabilities will encourage safe and efficient care for people living in East Sussex.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the trust in this exciting time of healthcare digitisation.”

In December 2023, Volkaerts spoke to Digital Health News, sharing his optimism about Nervecentre’s chances to expand its remit in 2024, much of which has come to fruition.

“We seem to have really good timing, which is a hard thing to achieve in business,” he said.

“We are hitting the frontline digitalisation procurement process at a point when we are a viable option.

“For a long time there has been a gap in the market for an EPR that is usable, focused on the NHS and hits the right price point.”

Meanwhile, an eight-week rapid review of EPR plans at nine acute trusts was commissioned by NHS England in September 2024. Led by Beverley Bryant, it is intended to share lessons to help the trusts, who are at various stages of their EPR journeys, ranging from business case development to planning for implementation.