-Nurses and doctors set to benefit from easier and quicker access to patients’ records-

Eton, UK – 03 February 2010 – InterSystems has announced that it has signed a framework contract with NHS National Service Scotland to supply its InterSystems TrakCare™ connected health information system as the new national patient management system for Scotland.

The contract is a national framework in line with Scotland’s eHealth Strategy that will enable any Health Board access to the system and associated modules over the next four years.

The new system will help to speed and improve the effectiveness of patient care in Scotland by ensuring patient information will only need to be entered once to make it immediately accessible by authorised staff in other care settings. The TrakCare patient management system includes hospital and mental health patient administration, order communications, results reporting and clinical support tools. A number of optional modules are available for: accident and emergency; hospital electronic prescribing and medicines administration; pharmacy management; maternity; neonatal; and theatres.

Initially the five purchasing Consortium NHS Boards involved (Ayrshire & Arran, Borders, Grampian, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, and Lanarkshire) will take advantage of this national framework agreement. Together with NHS Lothian, an existing TrakCare customer, these five Boards provide care for 70% of the Scottish population.  The total value of the initial contract will be in excess of £44M.  Additional Health Boards are already in discussion about how this framework can benefit them.

Commenting on this development, Scottish Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon said, “This contract will enable Health Boards across Scotland to implement a single, nationally available patient management system that will play a major role in improving patient services. Clinicians and patients will both be winners from a system which will track patient journeys from referral to discharge. It means clinicians will have easier and quicker access to medical records and patients will benefit from having more time with healthcare professionals.”

Alan Lawrie, Programme Board Chairman said, “We believe that this solution will play an important role in streamlining patient services leading to faster diagnosis and treatment while enhancing patient safety. Not only will this give us a modern technical base but it has been chosen by the staff who will be using it.”

The contract award follows a rigorous 20-month Competitive Dialogue procurement process. In total, more than 160 front-line healthcare staff, including doctors, nurses and other health professionals, took part in the evaluation of the solutions being proposed.

This contract for InterSystems TrakCare follows other recent successes including: the States of Jersey and the States of Guernsey (Channel Islands); the Santiago Military Hospital (Chile) and the new Sharjah Teaching Hospital (United Arab Emirates).  Together, these underline the global recognition of TrakCare as a proven, internationally adaptable and versatile connected healthcare information system, suitable for a wide range of care delivery models in acute, community, mental health and polyclinic settings.

TrakCare puts the patient at the very centre of the system, which means a record only needs to be created once, upon first admission. All subsequent treatments, admissions and visits can then be added to the initial record. Furthermore, by creating one structure for a common, shared record, information is simultaneously available wherever it is needed, and accessible from within each TrakCare module.

Kerry Stratton, Healthcare Managing Director of InterSystems said; “The decision to use Health Board staff from many departments in the selection process has given us a clear understanding of NHS Scotland’s immediate requirements and long-term vision. We are now ready to focus on delivering TrakCare for the benefit of patients and staff across Scotland.”