Morecambe Bay NHS Predicts £35m Savings

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay (UHMB) NHS Foundation Trust expects to save £35 in the next five years once its electronic patient record (EPR) is fully working.

The Trust adopted the Lorenzo patient administration system in 2010, intending for it to store data for 220 Trust across the North, East and Midlands in England.

However, this system was implemented as part of the failed National Programme for IT in the NHS – despite many issues, UHMB claims several fixes by healthcare IT solutions provider CSC helped stabilise the system.

The healthcare organisation’s recently published board papers reveal that it believes it has already generated £1.4m in savings from the Lorenzo system.

The document claims that this figure will continue to grow, reaching £40.7m by 2018/19, adding that the EPR programme is “very ambitious” and “ahead of most other hospital Trusts.”

“The collective benefits register currently predicts £43.85m savings over the life of this strategy (June 2014 to June 2019) and this benefit value significantly increases beyond this point to a 10-year prediction of £10.5m per annum,” it says.

EPR Project On-Going

Over the next two years, the Trust plans to deliver electronic prescribing and medication administration across all wards and departments.

Its plan also includes the implementation of electronic requests for diagnostic tests, medical device integration and mobile working capacity.

The UHMB EPR project is part of its overall IT strategy known as I3 – not including the Lorenzo solution, it intends to have £3.1m until 2018/19 with its approach to technology.

© 24N.biz