As well as the financial and technical considerations you need to make as part of choosing a system, you also need to make sure you are complying with the European legislation that all public sector tendors over a certain monetary threshold are legally required to comply with. Here are a few tips that will help you along the journey on choosing and procuring the right system.
The team you need
Clinical Execs, Tech Team, Informatics Team, Procurement
What to do
Develop a robust evaluation strategy
You may choose to do this by convening an evaluation panel and scoring criteria in advance. This will help you to compare different product functionalities and determine which are essential and which are optional for your organisation.
Create a pre-qualifying questionnaire
This can be shared with your collegues so you can get a clearer picture of what functionality is important to different members of the team. The answers should be used to assist with your procurement evaluation
Customise your system.
Understand the level of customisation the system allows, and how much time and effort both the supplier and the hospital are able to spend on tailoring the system
Understand Contract requirements
Figure out the existing contracts with preferred/mandated information technology suppliers (e.g. according to regional contracts)
Achieving Interoperability with systems
Consider what are the requirements for integration with existing systems (for example pharmacy stock control systems)
Get end-users to test the system
Involve local end-users in the system choice to ensure the inclusion of perspectives from different professional groups and provide a feeling of co-ownership
What to read
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Supplier Relationship Management
This presentation provides useful information on how to get the best out of the system.
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Learning from an ePMA procurement exercise
Learnings from Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
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ePrescribing System Procurement – How to Avoid Common Pitfalls
NHS England document created to support your ePMA procurement.
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ePrescribing System Evaluation – Usability Approach Summary
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Approaches to Evaluating Electronic Prescribing
Paper outlining the main methodological tools in the assessment of ePrescribing systems.
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The Evaluation of NHS CRS – An Independent Evaluation of the Implementation and Adoption of the National Health Service Care Records Service (NHS CRS) in Secondary Care in England
Tools you need
Connect
Still, thinking of the best way to evaluate the various systems on offer?
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