Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Extends Partnership with iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) for Five Years

Sydney, Nov 9, 2010 AEST (ABN Newswire) - iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) has agreed contracts with Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust for an upgrade of an existing patient administration system (PAS) to provide additional patient and clinical functionality, under trust plans to improve patient care by improving the clinical information available to staff at its four hospitals in north Manchester, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham.

Under a new five-year deal, iSOFT will upgrade Pennine's PAS and install a number of web-based clinical solutions, including its new e-prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) solution and HealthViews for order communications and consolidated access to patient data from across the trust. HealthViews and ePMA form part of iSOFT's new Smart Solutions portfolio.

Pennine's Associate Director of IM&T Christine Walters says the investments will reduce reliance on paper, cut duplication and give clinical staff a single, comprehensive view of patient and clinical records. "Ready access to records, test results, investigations, and medicines are fundamental in driving improvements in the quality of care, patient safety and clinical outcomes.

"The move reinforces our strategic partnership with iSOFT and our best-of-breed, incremental approach to improving operational efficiency and delivering tangible benefit to patients," Walters said.

"This exemplifies iSOFT's Smart Solutions strategy in which best-of-breed clinical solutions are seamlessly integrated into an overarching electronic patient record," said Adrian Stevens, iSOFT's UK Managing Director. "Helping Pennine promote equity and excellence in clinical services is also in line with the government's recent white paper."

The largest non-teaching trust in England, Pennine is iSOFT's first UK early adopter for its new ePMA solution launched in August. Proven at hospitals in Australia and New Zealand and adapted to NHS needs, it offers sophisticated clinical support to improve the accuracy, appropriateness and timeliness of the medicines prescribed and given. This will help to shorten hospital stays and improve performance in key areas such as discharge, re-admission rates and cost control.

iSOFT's HealthViews web-based application presents information from the PAS and trust clinical systems to give a detailed profile of a patient's clinical journey. Staff can also place orders for tests, review test results and create and view other documents such as nursing notes, discharge letters and GP referrals.

The new PAS will enable Pennine to capture changes to patient information in real-time to improve admissions, discharges and transfers, bed management and management of targets, such as 18-week waits. The upgrade includes a move to HP's latest iTanium hardware.

The project will be completed in four phases starting with the PAS upgrade and culminating in ePMA across all specialties, including oncology, paediatrics and theatres.

Contact

Brian Hemming Corporate PR Manager iSOFT Group Limited Tel: +44-1295-274240 Mob: +44-7748-920528 Email: brian.hemming@isofthealth.com http://www.isofthealth.com