BMI Healthcare

Electronic Master Patient Index Rollout

The Challenge
BMI Healthcare is the acute hospital division of General Healthcare Group (now owned by Netcare), and is the largest independent provider in the UK, with more than 60 locations providing services for more than 1.25m patients a year.

The company decided to take the opportunity provided by strong period of growth to further improve its customer service. A major challenge to this was its existing patient information systems, which existed as standalone systems for each of the hospitals, leading to substantial duplication of information and processes and creating inefficiencies. These legacy systems meant a lower quality of patient information and customer service, as well as increased difficulties in integrating with NHS systems.

The Solution
BMI decided to create an Enterprise Master Patient Index (eMPI) to act as a shared central data repository; as part of the IT transformation programme BMI also decided to upgrade its patient scheduling system to integrate with the eMPI.

Agilisys was chosen to lead this complex programme of work, from evaluating and specifying the solution through to managing its delivery and rollout. Working in close partnership with BMI, we divided the solution into 2 key phases, each with clear milestones along the way, as well as the flexibility to respond and adjust to learnings gathered throughout the process.

In the first phase, Agilisys completed a detailed evaluation of the preferred software suppliers, eventually choosing a consortium of three, put together to provide best of breed functionality across all of BMI’s requirements. The consortium of Initiate, BridgeForward, and UltraGenda, led by Agilisys, produced detailed specifications and a delivery plan, as well as an end-to-end proof of concept.

In Phase 2, we completed the detailed solution design, including plans for integration between legacy and new systems. Leading the consortium, we were responsible for delivery of the new patient management system, starting with a pilot deployment in a single hospital; we continued to oversee the roll-out across not only the original 49 hospitals, but additional locations that have become part of the GHG family.

The Benefits
As project lead, Agilisys has been able to deliver a robust solution that has successfully met BMI Healthcare’s expectations. The key benefits for BMI include:
Improved availability and quality of patient information for use by patients, clinicians, administrators, and management
Standardisation of processes in each hospital and improvement in line with industry best practice. Transforming the way hospitals record, store, and monitor information has enabled BMI to track the patient journey more effectively.
Furthermore, this project was one of the first steps in a transforming BMI’s systems to make them compliant with the National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) Choose and Book initiative, leading to full integration with the NHS.