and the beat goes on

Blackpool GP practice switches to iSOFT?s hosted-Synergy

Banbury ? 23 March 2011: Ashfield Road Surgery in Blackpool is the latest GP practice to switch to a hosted service from iSOFT in a bid to cut costs and improve reliability.
Previously an EMIS customer, the practice has also switched to iSOFT?s Synergy primary care solution. The move comes after St Paul's Medical Centre, a larger practice, took over the running of Ashfield Road. St Paul's has used Synergy for 15 years and considers the system more aligned to the needs of the GP's and the enlarged practice.
This view is shared by Dr John Lockley, GP and chair of the independent iSOFT User Group. ?Synergy provides a view of the patient record that is second to none,? he said. ?Synergy presents doctors with a problem-oriented medical record that is a joy to use, easy to change views, highly flexible and can be used dynamically to constantly reflect the patient?s current medical situation.?
The move to hosted-Synergy avoids the need for a server at Ashfield Road and the associated maintenance and back-office costs. Hosted at iSOFT?s data centre at Prestwich, the solution offers uninterrupted service at lower cost.
St Paul's Medical Centre will continue to run Synergy on its own server as contractually the databases for the two practices have to be separate, but key staff will have access to Ashfield Road's hosted environment from both sites.
iSOFT?s Prestwich data centre has a long record of hosting high-availability systems for NHS bodies such as NHS Shared Business Services, North East Patches Shared System Group, and NHS Supply Chain, plus individual NHS trusts. It also sets new levels of service and reliability.