The 40+ strong IT team uses Supportworks ITSM to provide support for all incidents and service requests from Trust staff, while ‘Seamless Ticketing’ interfaces with the Local Service Provider - Fujitsu Services (LSP), allowing direct escalation of calls to LSP second and third line support. Hornbill’s solution was selected as it provided the functionality required to implement ITIL ‘Best Practice’, which is mandatory for any Trust wishing to talk directly with their LSP, as well as being able to interface via ‘Seamless Ticketing’ and integrate into existing Trust systems such as Active Directory and SMS.

BHT was selected as an early adopter of CRS which aims to ensure that every individual’s medical and social history is accessible at any NHS site throughout the UK. Nearly 5000 users across three hospital sites in Amersham, Stoke Mandeville and High Wycombe will be accessing CRS when the implementation is fully completed in 2007.

According to Peter Drage, IT Service Support Manager at BHT; “As a Trust we needed an IT Service Management System that would enable us to implement ITIL ‘Best Practice’ yet be flexible enough for us to adopt and adapt and with an open architecture to allow interfacing with existing systems. Supportworks ITSM fitted the bill. For us the great benefit of Supportworks ITSM is that most of its functionality comes ‘out of the box’, with fast modification of processes to suit our needs. It delivered all the functionality we required, including Seamless Ticketing, complex SLA support and integration with existing Trust systems, at a very cost efficient price.

“Call volumes have increased by 30% since CRS went live and with the Connecting for Health (CfH) minimum data requirement calls take longer to log. Without Supportworks ITSM there is no way that we could have managed this increase. Supportworks ITSM has put us in a position where we can easily cope with future CfH and NPfIT programme requirements and we also have the ability to adapt quickly to internal change.”

Hornbill’s Supportworks ITSM was selected from four competitive products for its PinkVERIFY™ ITIL certification, its functionality, adaptability and open architecture. Supportworks was easily customised to communicate, using the Open Telephony Interface (OTI), with the Southern Cluster LSP. Seamless Ticketing enables the Trust support desk to gather the CfH minimum data set which is required if a call is to be passed to the LSP for resolution. All calls regarding the new Care Records System (CRS) are triaged locally before being referred to the LSP. Once the LSP has dealt with the call, data is sent back to the Trust and this data is then fed back into Supportworks ITSM for the call to be closed. This two-way communication has been key to the success of the project, and is a feature that so far no other IT Service Desk has been able to provide.

Modifications were also made to meet the Trust's SLA requirements that it had already in place and the new CfH NPfIT contractual SLAs. The CfH SLA’s define support response times against a complex requirements matrix. Priority is calculated based upon the NPfIT system, Impact of the failure and the Urgency of the incident. Supportworks was adapted to automate these requirements.

Following the success of Supportworks ITSM in the IT arena, it has been rolled out to other departments within the Trust – Radiology, Pathology, Business Change, Registration Authority and Information Governance. By giving them access to Supportworks, the IT Service Desk is able to handle their calls and leave them more time to deal with second and third line support. Also it enables IT to have an overview of what is going on in IT terms in other departments.

Gerry Sweeney, Managing Director at Hornbill Systems commented, “The NHS National Programme for IT is driving immense changes. Hornbill’s Supportworks has proven that it can assist the NHS to adopt ITIL ‘Best Practice’, adapt to meet the CfH minimum data set requirements and be up and running quickly to manage the increased demands as a result of the new NPfIT systems. The open architecture of Supportworks is ideal for supporting the National Programme as it enables seamless integration with third party systems, such as the Local Service Providers’ service desks.”

NOTES TO EDITORS
About Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust was established in April 2003 with the formal merger of South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust and Stoke Mandeville Hospital NHS Trust. The Trust serves residents in Buckinghamshire, Thame (Oxfordshire), Tring (Hertfordshire) and Leighton Buzzard (Bedfordshire), a combined population of 500,000. It also serves a larger population of 1.5m for Burns and Plastic Services and 14m for Spinal Injuries.

There are three hospitals in the Trust – Amersham Hospital, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Wycombe Hospital. The Trust currently has 4,700 staff and an annual budget of £185m.

For more information please visit www.buckshospitals.nhs.uk