Wye Valley NHS Trust is the latest UK healthcare provider to sign up to an open source electronic patient record (EPR) after agreeing a five year service contract with pioneering software specialist IMS MAXIMS.
The trust will work closely with IMS MAXIMS to implement the openMAXIMS EPR software to support the creation of accurate, accessible and integrated care records across its acute and community hospitals. The system will eventually integrate across multiple care settings, including social and primary care.
By reducing its dependency on paper notes, the trust is working towards the national ambition within NHS England's Five Year Forward View to ensure electronic health records are fully interoperable and supporting health secretary Jeremy Hunt's challenge for the NHS to be paperless by 2018.
"For us, this is not an ICT project, it is about clinical process change assisted by the right technology" says Simon Lind, project and portfolio manager at Wye Valley NHS Trust.
"Our decision to work with IMS MAXIMS was based on many things including their ambition to use open source as an option for generating the benefits of a strong electronic patient record. We can tailor the software for our specific requirements and share or access developments in the code with other healthcare providers. The fact that there are no licence charges was of particular interest to us."
"The team at IMS have listened to our requirements, engaged with our clinicians and we believe will be a strong partner in making the EPR a reality at Wye Valley NHS Trust."
Clinicians from across the trust will be able to access relevant and appropriate information within a single electronic patient record, at the point-of-care, to help them make more informed decisions on the diagnosis and treatment of a patient.
Dr. Jake Burdsall, consultant lead for IT at the Wye Valley NHS Trust added: "To have visibility of a patient’s record, especially in emergency situations is fundamental for improving care. You cannot underestimate the importance of having clinical information, be it past attendances, episodes or diagnostic results, to help make immediate and future decisions on a patient's care."
The EPR will be used as a platform to integrate the trust’s existing systems which will increase the amount of patient contact for clinicians as less time will be spent on chasing test results and looking for mislaid patient records. In addition, the 2,000 users of the new system will no longer require multiple logins and passwords to access different diagnostic systems, freeing up time for more important tasks.
New clinical functionality will also be introduced as a result of deploying the EPR. Additional modules within the project include order communications and diagnostics reporting (including all pathology and radiology tests), electronic discharge summaries and clinic letters, and scheduling for beds, tests and theatres. The digital capture and management of patient information provides more opportunities to deliver coordinated care for the trust.
The implementation of the EPR will replace the current Patient Administration Systems (PAS) from the National Programme for IT by the end of 2016.
Wye Valley will become the second NHS trust to implement openMAXIMS, the UK’s first open source EPR, after Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust goes live later this year.
Shane Tickell, CEO of IMS MAXIMS, said: "This is yet another significant step in the adoption of open source technology within healthcare. At a time when the NHS is looking to improve patient outcomes whilst becoming a more efficient service, Wye Valley has taken the very considered and astute decision when selecting its approach to clinical technology.
"Wye Valley NHS Trust will have software that meets the needs of clinicians and is flexible in its implementation, helping to save and manage precious hospital resources more effectively."
About Wye Valley NHS Trust
Wye Valley NHS Trust was established on 1 April 2011. The trust provides community care and hospital care to a population of just over 180,000 people in Herefordshire and a population of more than 40,000 people in mid-Powys, Wales. The trust exists to improve the wellbeing, independence and health of the people it serves. It is the leading provider of healthcare in Herefordshire. With an estimated annual turnover of around £160 million, the trust employs around 2,700 plus staff.
About IMS MAXIMS
IMS MAXIMS is an electronic patient record provider working towards better, safer patient care. Specialists in developing clinical and administrative software solutions for healthcare providers, IMS MAXIMS currently supports more than 150 organisations, 11 million patient records in the UK, and 1.9 million patient records in Ireland, approximately 50% of the population, as well as 20,000 users of IMS MAXIMS products.
Available as proprietary or open source software, MAXIMS is at the heart of the clinical and administrative life of everything from large UK and Irish hospitals, to small specialist independent clinics. It gives patient data to clinicians in exactly the format they need, and allows it to be shared with colleagues and updated in real-time. MAXIMS suits any clinical specialism and is excellent for order communications and reporting. Medical and administrative records can be kept fully up to date, with the minimum of effort. MAXIMS is web-based so there is no need to install software on computers or invest in expensive extra hardware.
About openMAXIMS
Electronic patient record (EPR) provider IMS MAXIMS released the open source code for its full MAXIMS suite, including its electronic patient record and patient administration system (PAS) free of charge to the NHS in June 2014. Last year, IMS MAXIMS was named the only open source EPR and PAS supplier in a 'catalogue' designed to support NHS England's technology fund two, officially called the Integrated Digital Care Fund.