IT & TELECOMS
O One size does not fit all
asis Medical Solutions is an independent UK business which
provides health informatics systems to acute and mental health trusts.
The Oasis distinction is straightforward. They believe that every trust is different and one size does not fit all.
They also believe that trusts should be encouraged to help shape the information systems upon which their organisation depends and share in key decisions about scope and future strategy.
In a series of articles we will look in some detail about how this philosophy manifests itself in different trusts - each of which believes, with justification, that their version of Oasis is special to them.
In this issue we look at Oasis at Sandwell Mental Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust, a much respected trust in the West Midlands.
Sandwell is a major provider of mental health and learning disability services. Its clinicians care for and support people in hospitals, in the community and in people’s own homes. The trust employs over 1,000 staff.
In 2005, Sandwell, a foundation trust, started its search for a new comprehensive computer system. None of the established systems had, in Sandwell’s opinion, the flexibility needed to accommodate either the already announced or the confidently anticipated business changes in the mental health sector.
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They could deal with the ‘here and now’ but what concerned the trust was the future - and changes would be difficult to make without constant supplier involvement.
So they took a very different approach and decided to seek an established IT ally and jointly develop a new system with a proven patient administration system as its foundation.
They spent a considerable time examining alternatives and twice chose Oasis - Oasis Medical Solutions as the company they thought they could best work with and Oasis the product as the solid foundation for building their vision.
The objective of jointly developing a system with maximum flexibility and configurability was achieved in January 2010.
The completed “soft-wired” application offers complete flexibility in data sets to meet evolving national requirements and local needs and practice. The system is designed around care clusters/HoNOS assessments and mirrors the current clinical processes in place.
We asked Sharon Boyes-Schiller, OMS managing director, if Sandwell’s clearly expressed decision to extend and shape the Oasis product caused her any problems.
“Not at all,” she explained. “Oasis has always encouraged the users of its mental health and acute systems to collaborate actively and constructively in the configuration of their systems - to tailor them to their own specific requirements.
“Sandwell used the clinical and administrative toolkits which underpin the Oasis mental health platform and they succeeded in delivering a fully integrated EPR which helps to manage every aspect of supporting mental health care within the NHS”.
Paul Stefanoski, MHFT’s deputy chief executive and director of resources, is adamant that mental health trusts must ensure that they are not completely reliant on their IT suppliers to keep ahead of the changes within the NHS.
He said: “I need assurance that our vital investment in IT continues to support the trust
in changing times and that we are not hostages to the market. Our ambition is to create a community of mental health trusts who share this ambition and within which we can share ideas and best practice”.
The EPR is working today in its complete form in every department of Sandwell and critically incorporates the use of HoNOS assessment and care clusters, with pathways, in readiness for payment by results for mental health.
Clinicians are proud and supportive of the system. Many changes to data sets have already been made to prove the original objective which was to ensure that Sandwell can make adjustments to the system without needing the intervention or involvement of an IT supplier.
In May, Oasis and Sandwell announced a decision to market the system together. Considerable interest has already been shown in the Sandwell Oasis Mental Health EPR by other trusts.
There are many quantifiable benefits already being delivered by the new system and they can best be summarised by a comment by Karen Dowman, the trust’s chief executive:
”The way we are using the Oasis product has improved productivity and will enable us to meet with confidence the challenge and opportunity of Payment by Results. Oasis has, without doubt, improved the quality of care for our patients and, by increasing efficiency, allowed more money to go to frontline care”.
Jul/Aug 10
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