Birmingham NHS Trusts choose Citadel Health to transform pathology

Birmingham Women’s and Children NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust are set to deploy Citadel Health’s Evolution vLab laboratory information management system (LIMS) across all of their pathology services.

The move will provide a fully managed, multi-site and multi-disciplinary LIMS that will enable increased testing capacity and improve efficiency, safety and quality outcomes. In addition, it will provide end-to-end data capture functionality and improve the delivery of complex integrations, which will improve turnaround time.

The trusts needed to find a solution to support greater collaborative working across eight sites in Birmingham and Solihull. At the same time, there were multiple legacy LIMS that needed consolidation. Citadel Health’s LIMS implementation will lead to improved collaboration between sites and standardize workflow and data. This will also increase the level of automation in all divisions of the laboratories.

Matt Boazman, chief strategy and innovation officer at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “As a specialist provider of cutting-edge care, having the latest and greatest pathology services is essential. This investment will make our systems even more efficient and help improve the experience of our patients and those we care for across the region and country.”

A number of departments will be connected via LIMS, including microbiology, cellular pathology, blood transfusion, blood sciences, toxicology and genetics. It will be integrated with existing capabilities and by supporting the transition of data, services, workflows and functionality will help deliver safe, timely and high quality clinical care to patients.

Craig Webster, director of pathology at University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, added: “We are very proud of the quality of care we provide and are constantly looking for ways to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients. With this LIMS solution from Citadel Health, we can increase our testing capacity and workflow efficiency, providing welcome improvements in quality and safety.”

The new LIMS will also support the transition to a regional integrated care system (ICS).

Stephen Lynch, executive general manager of Citadel Health, said: “We are excited to begin this partnership with Birmingham and Solihull ICS, linking pathology services for England’s largest population outside of London. It is very encouraging to see Birmingham and Solihull accelerating progress towards better integrated care.”

The trusts move in Birmingham to Citadel Health’s LIMS follows on from the recent appointment of the provider to transform NHS Wales’ entire pathology network.