Of late there has been discussion on HC and privately about where ALC sits in the ecosystem of the NHS and their pathway to larger contracts. It is evident that the larger hospitals with deadlines and complexities of still maintaining a functioning hospital have been drawn and rightly so towards your larger suppliers who have the workforce and experience to integrate into existing systems, implement the new system while also training staff. For the larger trusts with £100mil+ contracts this is the safe option even if the system doesn’t actually provide everything they want, within these situations ALC is unique in that rather than missing out entirely we are able to come in “underneath” Cerner and provide the Trust with the information the trust wants all while Cerner does the leg work. I believe ALC will get full product adoption at smaller NHS Trusts who prefer a more boutique service such as South Tees where they have been slowly building up to a full EPR with gradual adoption of various Miya modules or Dartsford and Gravesham who also have been adding various modules.
Ideally a full hospital adoption is where ALC will reap the rewards not only from a brand recognition perspective but from being able to show more detailed statistics from case studies using just their products. I like to look at each NHS trust as a domino and ALC currently has multiple dominoes through the line swaying and the more modules these trusts adopt the more momentum each domino gets however we are waiting for one of the dominoes to get enough momentum to fall and then we will begin to see the full benefits. I believe we may see this in NHS Scotland ironically right up the top of the line if you look at a map and I hope this will create the domino effect down into England as it gets momentum. This momentum will come through PatientTrack – ALC purchased PatientTrack in 2018 and is now integrated into the Miya Platform, PatientTrack is now made up for 2 Miya modules, Miya Assessment and Miya Observations. (Link to Patientrack - Alcidion)
There has been multiple trusts taking up products across Scotland with great success.
-April 2020 Fife deploys PatientTrack for 5 years
-July 2020 Lanarkshire deploys Patient Track for 5 years
-March 2022 Tayside Deploys Miya Obs and Miya assessment for 5 years
In 2016 NHS Fife won the 2016 award for digital health for reducing cardiac arrests by 2/3 after implementing the PatientTrack System (Miya obs & Miya Assessment) - DIGITALHEALTH NEWS
In January 2021 Monklands hospital praised the Patient Track system with its “Command Center” and I encourage people to read this article - FutureScotmagazine distributed in The Times Scotland :: 28 (yudu.com)
Now this is where the next big opportunity comes from – as per link NHS Lanarkshire trialled the system across two wards in 2020 and then immediately implemented by signing the 5 year contract. NHSLanarkshire praises impact of digital monitoring trial - Daily Record
The important part is they are choosing to deploy PatientTrack at their brand new hospital – Monklands Replacement Hospital which is being touted as “Scotlands first Digital Hospital”
NHS Lanarkshire have purchased a 161 acre site and the tender for design and construction of a brand new purpose built £400mil hospital is currently out. NHSLanarkshire reveals design concept of Scotland’s first digital hospital(governmentcomputing.com)
Interestingly Nursing Services Chief says “There will also be an operationalcommand centreat the heart of the development, providing the mostmodern of healthcare with real-time information to make staff instantly awareof patients whose condition is deteriorating, helping to maximise patientsafety and patient flow, and to address any capacity issues in the safest waypossible”
IF I HAVELOST YOUR ATTENTION AND YOUR SCROLLING START READING HERE
Earlier inmy very longwinded post I mentioned that larger hospitals go for the larger systemsdue to the complexities of fully operational hospitals, integration with oldsystems and tight time frames however if you have managed to still be herereading I have finally got to my main point – I believe this brand new hospitalis where the biggest opportunity may lie for ALC as they have time on theirside to work with the hospital to procure the full custom system. This could bethe one which puts ALC on the map if they can procure the full suite ofproducts including the Silverlink PAS system. The benefits are in my opinionthe timeframe for delivery which would enable a slow and steady approach workingclosely with NHS Lanarkshire who are already extremely impressed with PatientTrackand have said PatientTrack is going to be the “Operational CommandCenter” the nursing chief was referring to. Now this isn’t just speculation,Monklands are releasing updates and they have confirmed they are going to be usingPatientTrack so this wont be a surprise to me when it happens but its how muchmore extra ALC is going to be providing is the unknown, this isn’t somethingthat needs to be announced as it falls under NHS Lanarkshire agreement butwould need to be renegotiated once the extent of what ALC are providing at the newhospital is confirmed.
Which ever system NHS Lanarkshire choose to deploy at Monklands itwill have to be interoperable with PatientTrack so bodes very well for ALC. Thecontinued adoption throughout NHS Scotland and some of the comments coming fromclinicians shows how much of a positive impact Miya can have – brand new hospitalsare few and far between and we are well placed to capitalise on this opportunity.Brand new modules such as recently released MiyaEmergency may be aiming towardsto enable them to service as many needs as they can within the new MonklandsHospital.
Monklands Replacementhospital newsletter releases:
MRP FebruaryFlash Report - MRPflash report Feb 2022 (scot.nhs.uk)
-“ Discussions are ongoing with outpatientspecialties to review plans for increasing the level of virtual consultationsmoving towards the new hospital opening”
-We knows Sydney LHD deployed and expanded the use of Miya Precision to aid in its Virtual and remote care.
MRP MarchFlash Report - MRPflash report Mar 2022 (scot.nhs.uk)
MRP April Flashreport – MRPflash report April 2022 (scot.nhs.uk)
-What we have done - Mapping exercises with department representatives fromthe digital workstream to understand current patient/staff flows and potentialdigital solutions that would assist.
-What we have planned- Monklandswill be first to test Patientrack system’s ‘hard alerting’ component, whichhighlights patient deterioration to clinical teams via automatic phone alerts.
MRP May Flash Report - MRPflash report May 2022 (scot.nhs.uk)
Close geographical locations to trusts who adopt the products will provide natural organic word of mouth growth as you have seen in various links with the statistical improvements and staff satisfaction this will be discussed at local NHS conferences etc and provide easier cross selling within the area but it appears we are gaining traction throughout Scotland
I have quite a few links within this post but it is worth readingthrough as there is a lot great details through out.
Monklands hospital will take time as design and constructiontender has only just gone out however its another cog in the chain as to whereALC may take its place in the NHS. Cerner were selected back in 2018 for the Elancsproject which is only going live this year so you would assume Monklands willbe looking to select their systems in the near term. The size of the contract I would anticipate to be north of £100mil at the bare minimum and could be significantly more, this would be a pivotal signing for ALC if they can secure it. As with PatientTrack I think the contract signings would follow to geographical close NHS Trusts adopting the same systems as Monklands. NHS Tayside have an EPR and PAS contract until 2029 however they have early exit clauses from 2024 onwards and Tayside adopted PatientTrack after Lanarkshire did so if we can secure the full EPR and PAS at Monklands hopefully this follows on.
Monklands Replacement hospital is one of many opportunities for thefuture
- We have $17mil in the bank (nearly 10 years worth of funds atcurrent rate)
- We have Kate being the only invitee and guest speaker todelegates from Indian Health Board just last week
- NZ Health announces $600mil of extra funding towards digitalisationwith Kate being on the board of NZHIT
- $300mil Australian defence contract with ALC providing acritical role followed up with AustTrade asking Kate to talk shows we aremaking inroads within the federal government departments.
- Many recent appointments of ex Cerner employees who have been theface of ALC at recent industry conferences will enable deeper inroads to Hospitals which may have been difficult to penetrate.
Lots of opportunities and long term I believe we will be rewarded.