We congratulate Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust on becoming the first London hospital to go live with the Cerner Millennium patient administration system as part of the National Programme for IT [NPfIT]
Although it’s the basic, non-integrated R0 release of the system, it combines the data from two separate patient administration systems, the McKesson TotalCare system and IRC PAS - no small feat. Another major challenge has been training staff to work in a different way.
Corporate America hates the word “but” whether spoken or written. But sometimes it’s unavoidable.
Progress is a beguiling thing. Pushing a broken car up a hill is a form of progress. Before the advent of the NPfIT in 2002, there were regular announcements of advances in regionally-based electronic patient record systems. Now we’re delighted when a single patient administration system – unlinked to others – goes into a hospital without too much disruption.
Links:
Head of IT at Barnet and Chase Farm NHS trust quits
Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust announces go-live of new Cerner system
Barnet and Chase Farm switch on Cerner
October 2001 - MInisterial statement on progress with electronic patient record systems
