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The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals, a NHS Foundation Trust in the UK, today announced an innovative partnership to deploy electronic health record (EHR) technology.
The project, the first for UPMC in the UK, is expected to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care.
Under the 14-month implementation plan, a UPMC technology team will install and adapt five EHR applications at three Newcastle hospitals. These applications include inpatient order entry, patient administration, pharmacy management, accident and emergency services and operating room systems.
Timothy Walls, MD, medical director of Newcastle Hospitals, said: “Our senior healthcare professionals are delighted with the opportunity to move forward with such enhanced IT systems. In addition, we are considering collaborations with UPMC in clinical medicine, research and development, which will be significantly strengthened by this IT improvement.”
UPMC and Newcastle also have formed a joint venture to provide IT services to other UK hospital trusts. “Newcastle will be an important proving ground for this partnership,” said Len Fenwick, chief executive of Newcastle Hospitals. “We are confident that others will soon see the value of what we are doing here and will be eager to replicate it.”
The contract is part of UPMC’s broader effort to generate incremental revenue to support its healthcare, research and education mission in western Pennsylvania and throughout the world.
UPMC, which already provides technology services for other health systems in the United States, formed a separate company last year to focus on growing this commercial business.
“The Newcastle contract is the first of what we hope will be many international agreements for our information technology services,” said Dan Drawbaugh, chief information officer at UPMC. “This further demonstrates that the technological advances UPMC has made to provide superior patient care in western Pennsylvania is highly valued and sought after around the world.”
In addition to the Newcastle project, UPMC’s international portfolio includes a recently signed contract to manage the private Beacon Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, two cancer centers in Ireland and a leading transplant hospital in Palermo, Italy. UPMC also provides emergency medical services and training in Qatar.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals
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May I draw your attention to an article: in the International Journal of Medical Informatics 48:pp.191-194 1998 Febr.? – Prof Attila Naszlady, Budapest, Hungary
