EMIS : expands community reach

EMIS Group expands community reach

EMIS Group has been awarded two more major contracts to provide connected community care for nearly 1 million NHS patients in the north and south of England.

The news brings to six the number of major community, children's and mental health contracts announced by the Group this year, further extending its reach in this marketplace across the UK. As well as community, children's and mental health, its offer spans primary, secondary and specialist care, commissioning and pharmacy, integrating care across these healthcare sectors throughout the NHS.

Bristol Community Health is to move from RiO to EMIS Web to support a diverse range of services for the city's 500,000 population.  Over a thousand community staff provide more than 35 services, from nursing and palliative care to diabetes support and physiotherapy.

And in the north, Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has commissioned EMIS Web to join up community care for 470,000 people across Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre.  The system will be used by 1,200 clinicians - from GPs and health visitors to emergency rapid response and mental health teams. It will support 22 services across 66 locations.

Subject to robust local data sharing agreements, community staff in both Blackpool and Bristol will also have secure two-way record sharing with local GPs - enabling safer, more efficient care.

Other community customers include

• Bromley Healthcare

• Camden clinical commissioning group (CCG)

• Barts Health NHS Trust

• North Somerset Community Partnership and

• Sirona Care and Health in South Gloucestershire.

Aileen Fraser, Clinical Director at Bristol Community Health said: "We're delighted to be working with EMIS on the replacement of our community EPR. We're confident that the system will help us achieve our vision of integrated patient records, and the end result will offer more effective and efficient patient care.

"Most GPs in the Bristol area use EMIS, so primary and community teams will be supported to work together more effectively. The system also integrates with our mobile working application, Total Mobile. Interoperability is a priority for us and as a result, we look forward to starting the implementation phase soon."

In Blackpool, community clinicians will have secure, two-way record sharing with hospital staff.

Carol McCann, Associate Director of Nursing at Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "EMIS Web will give community staff a joined up patient record to enable safer clinical decisions. It will save everyone a great deal of time in chasing vital information, and it will give us the assurance that we are making decisions with a full understanding of what is happening to that patient across all care settings. In short, it is real time data, enabling robust clinical decisions."

Martin Bell, Director of Community, Children's and Mental Health at EMIS Group said: "These further two significant contracts show there is no limit to the types of community health services that EMIS Web can support. We are very proud to be working with these innovative organisations that have chosen our best of breed technology to provide first-class care in new ways for the NHS."

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