News: NHS Cumbria CCG to implement region­‐wide patient transition solution across existing best practice IT framework

NHS Cumbria’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Strata Health (UK) Ltd. confirmed today an agreement is in place to implement a bespoke region- wide resource matching & e referral (RMeR) system with a rapid phase one deployment within the first quarter of 2013. The project will enable the entire Cumbria integrated health and social care economy to seamlessly coordinate patient transitions across all stakeholders including the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Cumbria County Council, North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr. William Lumb, Cumbria CCG’s CCIO and a practicing GP at Sedbergh Medical Centre – Branch Surgery commented, “the core deliverable in creating this infrastructure will be for the system to act as a type of ‘air traffic control’ system for health and social care interventions across the entire region; with the primary goal of improving patient care”.

Dr. Lumb went on to say, “as a GP I can tell you that clinicians today lack access to information on a system-­‐wide basis including real time capacity. This is fundamental to ensuring patients get the right care, the first time. We will rapidly build this infrastructure across Cumbria, tailored to our local needs as a best of breed system to ensure the needs of our population are met now and in the future”.

A critical component of a truly integrated health and social system that facilitates the transition of patients across all service providers will be integrating core systems to ensure seamless workflow. As such, Strata Health UK has confirmed that their most recent module Strata Connect, will power the integration across Cumbria’s existing core systems and the RMeR framework.

The integration in Cumbria will include, HL7 2.5, HL7 3.0, Web Services, and SAML to link Strata with the Lorenzo Electronic Patient Record (EPR), and IAS (Social Services System) passing select patient transitional detail across the MIG clinical portal. Strata Connect has been designed to allow increased flexibility within a Trust to bring together best of breed systems in the most efficient way possible including but not limited to: Inbound & Outbound Single Sign On, Support For Two Factor Authentication, Site Specific HL7 Integration, Onsite Integration Modules, Deployment Independence.

Clint Schick, Managing Director of Strata Health UK said, “The level of integration in Cumbria is the most comprehensive the Strata UK Team has been tasked with to date. The flexibility of Strata Connect will support both the Clinical Portal in place within Cumbria, as well as allow for increased integration with the Hospital Information Systems, Electronic Medical Records, and Social Services Systems. This will lead to a significant savings in time, money, efficiency and the overall patient experience”.

About NHS Cumbria CCG: NHS services are designed and delivered around the needs of local people.

In Cumbria, for a number of years, GPs have been involved in planning how and where health services should be delivered for communities.

Now GPs are taking on a more formal role. Family doctors – not NHS managers – will be responsible in the future for ‘commissioning’ Cumbria’s health services.

‘Commissioning’ means planning and purchasing NHS services for local people from hospital trusts and other organisations.

About Strata Health Ltd:

Strata Health leverages technology to achieve dramatic patient flowimprovement within health systems. Our clients say they’ve entrusted us with the job of creating patient flow solutions that achieve real and dramatic benefits for patients, their families and the world’s devoted front line caregivers. Strata Health LTD is a UK based business and a wholly owned subsidiary of Strata Health Solutions, Inc. It is comprised of professionals with empathy for those who need care and intense respect for those who devote themselves to caring for others.

For more Information please contact: Clint Schick on 07909863342 / clint@stratahealth.com or visit www.stratahealth.co.uk