London (22 February 2007) - Initiate Systems, Inc., the leading provider of customer-centric master data management solutions for creating complete, real-time views of data about patients, households and organisations, today announced that it has been awarded the contract to provide the Nuffield Hospitals group with an enterprise master person index (EMPI). This EMPI will provide the foundation for an enterprise-wide PACS (picture archiving and communications system), Radiology Information System and Computed Radiography systems deployment across Nuffield’s 40 hospitals, supplied by Agfa HealthCare UK. It will also become the single point of patient demographic and multi-modality data for all future enterprise applications.
"Nuffield Hospitals is committed to the principles of patient safety, continual improvement and pro-actively implementing technology to ensure the most positive patient experience and outcomes," said Chris Cook, Nuffield's IT Director. "With the increasing demands both from within the NHS, to meet the government's Patient Choice initiative, and within private healthcare to continually improve services, we see the creation of an integrated, single view of all patient contact to be fundamental to our future strategic development."
Initiate Identity Hub™ software will access data in Patient Administration Systems (PAS) and the PACS/RIS solutions in each of the 40 hospitals. Plus, it is anticipated that the EMPI will also incorporate information from Nuffield Proactive Health – the employee health, vitality and wellness arm of the Nuffield Hospitals group – as well as Vanguard Healthcare, Nuffield's state-of-the-art mobile healthcare solutions division, the largest of its kind in the UK.
"Initiate's adherence to IHE standards was of particular interest to us," added Cook, "as it enables us to facilitate the interoperability necessary for interaction with the NHS and between our disparate in-house systems, and it also provides a firm foundation for future developments." The creation of a single EMPI, with its single enterprise identifier, overcomes the issues of individual patient, contract or treatment numbering systems in each hospital and enables Nuffield to easily add new enterprise applications to meet emerging demands.
"This award, together with existing implementations, firmly establishes Initiate as the leading EMPI provider in the UK private healthcare market," added Tony Bowden, Initiate Systems Vice President of EMEA. "With this new implementation the Initiate EMPI will, in total, be used to process health records for almost 20 percent of the UK's population. As a proven leader in both U.S. and Canadian healthcare arenas, this is a very exciting time for Initiate Systems in the UK and throughout Europe."
Agfa HealthCare UK won the prime contract to supply the PACS/RIS solution and Initiate won the tender for the EMPI infrastructure following a comprehensive competitive tender. The decision was based on the ability to deliver the project to a tight timeframe and to provide the level of integration required for such a complex multi-site organisation. The work is expected to take one year, and the transition is expected to be completed by early 2008.
Initiate Identity Hub™ software is the most accurate, scalable, rapidly implemented and widely deployed enterprise master person index and customer data integration solution available for organisations in the healthcare sector. It supports and manages patient identification across organisations, despite diverse governance, messaging and communications protocols. It provides accurate patient identification across private/public boundaries enabling the authorised data exchange of patient history for more timely patient care. It makes accessible an accurate real-time, single view of the patient to all critical touch points for improved diagnosis and, by elimination of duplicate tests, improves cost effectiveness and helps improve patient satisfaction.
For more information about Initiate Systems, visit www.initiatesystems.com. For more information about Nuffield Hospitals, visit www.nuffieldhospitals.org.uk.
About Nuffield Hospitals
Nuffield Hospitals is UK’s largest not-for-profit hospital group, and a registered Charity. Any operating surplus generated is reinvested to improve patient services.
Nuffield Hospitals is committed to working with the NHS, and its work to support Choose and Book and Patient Choice was recognised with the Public-Private Partnership Award at the 2006 Laing & Buisson Independent Healthcare Awards.
Since 2004 Nuffield Hospitals has treated over 70,000 NHS referred patients.
The organisation’s head office is at: Nuffield House, 1-4 The Crescent, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 4BN.