SAS Institute wins NHS Trust contract

NEWS Premier Health Trust has selected ebusiness solutions company, the SAS Institute, to consolidate and improve access to its patient records in the UK. GPs, consultants, district nurses and primary care groups (PCG) in the south-east Staffordshire region will now be linked up to one secure network via an SAS web browser. Neil Serougi, IM&T manager of Premier Health, said: "Traditionally, patients' information in the NHS has been stored on several different systems. Not surprisingly therefore, in the past, delays in information exchange between different health practitioners has adversely affected the accuracy and timeliness of decision making." The healthcare professionals within the different departments of the Trust will now have access to details of treatments and patient records. The intranet-based solution, will, according to Serougi "cut down the time to get information to the right person, in a user-friendly and meaningful way". The move supports the national government strategy towards a global electronic record, or 'virtual patient' data network.