Roll-out of COA Solutions Across Scottish NHS to Contribute to Significantly Improved Service
Released on: February 12, 2008, 7:10 am
Press Release Author: COA Solutions
Industry: Healthcare
Press Release Summary: COA Solutions wins £3.6 million contract to supply all twenty-two Scottish health boards with software portfolio.
Press Release Body: COA Solutions (formerly CedarOpenAccounts) has won a £3.6 million contract to supply all twenty-two Scottish health boards with a comprehensive portfolio of financial, procurement support, business intelligence and document management software solutions. This 'Health Business Suite' is being implemented as part of a drive to achieve shared services working throughout NHSScotland. The planned completion date for fully implementing the new system is March 2009.
Implementing COA Solutions software throughout NHSScotland forms part of the Scottish Government's Efficient Government Initiative and will help to deliver the Government's planned efficiency targets. NHS National Services Scotland, the body overseeing NHSScotland's move towards a common software platform is running the Shared Support Services Programme and expects the COA Solutions project to be a key enabler of the quality and efficiency gains.
John Francis, Programme Director from the Shared Support Services Programme says, "High quality health services are a key priority for the Scottish Government. To ensure this is achieved, all Scottish health boards need to work closely together and this is only possible when a common infrastructure is in place. With COA Solutions' Health Business Suite being run by all NHSScotland, the health boards will be able to more easily share staff, responsibilities and information. As well as creating a more streamlined financial service, this will free-up time and resources that can be deployed on supporting and delivering the Scottish Government's 'Better Health Better Care' Policy."
COA Solutions won the NHSScotland contract after demonstrating an in-depth understanding of the Scottish NHS market. In fact, many health boards were already using COA Solutions as Francis explains, "The majority of NHSScotland's financial transactions were already going through COA Solutions and so it made sense to build on this solid foundation and to work with COA to enhance and to extend the Health Business Suite. The software has been developed to fully support the re-engineered business processes and help deliver the identified improvements."
As well as the COA Solutions project improving NHS-wide efficiency, being able to access and analyse data from all twenty-two Scottish health boards will enable a detailed and holistic view of the health service, allowing for improved decision-making. Being able to view financial documents electronically will also free-up document storage space and eliminate both lost documents and off-site storage costs.
Five 'Consortia' led by NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS National Services Scotland , NHS Tayside, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and NHS Lothian will locally manage the implementations of the COA Solutions Health Business Suite in support of the Shared Services Support Programme. A COA Solutions user group has also been established comprising representatives from the Consortia to ensure that all decisions relating to the project are commonly agreed.
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Notes to Editor
About NHSScotland
The Scottish Government Health and Community Care is responsible for NHSScotland and for the development and implementation of health and community care policy. NHSScotland is accountable for the performance of the service. NHSScotland comprises 14 territorial NHS Boards responsible for the planning and delivery of all health services in their own area. In addition, there are 8 Special Health Boards in Scotland.
These are:
The Scottish Ambulance Service NHS 24 - provides 24 hour telephone access to medical advice from clinical professionals The State Hospital - cares for patients requiring treatment under special security conditions NHS Health Scotland - promotes positive attitudes to health and encourages healthy lifestyles NHS Quality Improvement Scotland - sets and monitors clinical standards NHS Education Scotland - provides educational solutions for workforce development through designing, commissioning, quality assuring and where appropriate providing education for NHSScotland staff National Waiting Times Centre Board (The Golden Jubilee National Hospital) - provides a dedicated elective facility in key specialties for patients throughout Scotland to assist in reducing waiting times NHS National Services Scotland - provides a range of support services ensuring frontline patient care is delivered effectively across Scotland In 2006 around 159,000 staff were employed by NHSScotland. These included more than 67,000 nurses, midwives and health visitors and over 3,800 consultants. In addition there were over 4,500 doctors working in general practice and more than 12,000 allied health professionals such as, physiotherapists, radiographers, speech and language therapists working throughout the service.
About 'Better Health Better Care' Policy
'Better Heath Better Care' Policy is the Scottish Government\'s programme to deliver a healthier Scotland by helping people to sustain and improve their health, especially in disadvantaged communities, ensuring better, local and faster access to health care.
About COA Solutions www.coasolutions.com
COA Solutions (formerly CedarOpenAccounts) is the UK\'s leading supplier of integrated business management and information systems to public, private and not-for-profit service sector organisations.
COA Solutions' Health Business Suite of applications combines core financial management, procurement, human resource and payroll systems, integrated with a range of collaborative, document management and business intelligence solutions. These solutions extend the value and effectiveness of the Finance, HR & Payroll departments across the organisation and enable managers in the business to monitor, analyse and continually improve corporate performance.
COA Solutions has more than 450 experienced professional staff supporting and servicing over 3,000 clients across the UK Service sector including Companies House, Newcastle City Council, WHSmith, Royal Bank of Scotland, Aer Lingus, National Express Group, DFS, RSPB and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust.
Contact:
Liz Ebbrell, COA Solutions
Liz.ebbrell@coasolutions.com and liz.ebbrell@versionone.co.uk
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