Nuffield Hospitalshas begun rolling
out enterprise resource planning and document management software
to its 40 hospitals to protect profit margins when it takes on NHS
work, which is being offered at rates lower than those paid by
private medical insurers.
The UK's largest private hospital group is installing the
software in clusters of two or three hospitals at a time, after
successfully completing tests at three hospitals in late 2006.
Nuffield's IT director, Chris Cook, said, "The IT investment is
increasing operational efficiencies and it will therefore
contribute towards the indirect costs of carrying out an
operation."
The group is using Lawson Financials as its ERP system and
Version One for document management. The two systems are used in
about 30 hospital groups in the US.
Cook said, "We have learned that Lawson and Version One are very
robust systems. We have also saved ourselves a lot of paperwork and
administration."
Nuffield expects to recoup its £4m investment in Lawson through
improved efficiency within three years.
The biggest savings will come from creating a central
procurement function for the group, which Nuffield will put in
place as soon as Lawson is live at all 40 sites. This will enable
the group to cut stockholdings in individual hospitals because of
its greater flexibility. Nuffield aims to cut the average number of
days' worth of stock held by hospitals from 60 to about 30.
Other savings are expected to come from establishing a shared
services centre for back-office functions, starting with
finance.
Cook said bringing human resources into the shared services
centre was "the next logical step".
Nuffield has installed dedicated HP servers to run the ERP
system.
Nuffield rolls out Choose and Book
Nuffield Hospitals is implementing Choose and Book software from
the NHS alongside its ERP system.
It tested the software, which enables GPs to refer patients for
appointments with the hospital of their choice, at its private
hospital in Plymouth last December.
The number of referrals the hospital received jumped from 30 a
week by phone and fax to an average of 75 after the software went
live.
More on Nuffield's systems upgrade
www.computerweekly.com/219327
Link to
Nuffield Hospitals
http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidance/PatientChoice/fs/en
Link to
Lawsons
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