Lorenzo patient record systems

Lorenzo patient record systems are a type of Electronic health record provided by CSC, originally as part of the United Kingdom government’s National Programme for IT (NHS Connecting for Health) in the NHS.

There is a long history of negotiations between the NHS and the company.^[1]

On 4 September 2012, the UK Department of Health announced that whilst it was "dismantling" the National Programme for IT, Lorenzo would be supplied under a new legally binding agreement with CSC.^[2]

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust was the first to deploy the technology. It implemented electronic patient record system Lorenzo Release 1.9 in June 2010.^[3]

Humber NHS Foundation Trust was the first mental health organisation to use the CSC Lorenzo patient record systems in June 2012.^[4]

Lorenzo systems are being introduced to Warrington & Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust during 2015.^[5]

In June 2015, a Digital Health Intelligence article stated that Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust had gone live with Lorenzo.^[6] In July 2015, Digital Health Intelligence reported CSC as stating that 19 NHS Trusts had contracted to take the Lorenzo system.^[7]

George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust,^[8] Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust,^[9] Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust^[10] are also implementing Lorenzo under a financial support package which has been described as controversial.

In June 2013 senior executives from the NHS were called before the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, where chair Margaret Hodge called CSC a “rotten company” and said the Lorenzo system was “hopeless”.^[11]

Delays in the provision of data to NHS England's waiting list system were linked to Lorenzo implementations in an HSJ article in May 2014. Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s April risk register awarded its Lorenzo project the highest possible risk rating – 25 – citing “potential risks to patient safety quality, information governance and performance trajectories”. Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust's May 2014 board meeting noted it had been forced to “recruit 25 additional staff” to address “a number of issues [which] have arisen as Lorenzo moves to business as usual”, including “backlogs, clinic restructuring and un-outcomed outpatient clinic forms”. Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust’s May 2014 risk register said plans to deploy Lorenzo might be “unrealistic”, and that it had “insufficient capacity and insufficient funding” to support the project.^[12]

North Bristol NHS Trust was scheduled to be the first trust to go live with Lorenzo but as of November 2015 are experiencing problems in transitioning from the old Cerner system. ^[13]

References