iSOFT has luck of the Irish

iSOFT today announced contract extensions in Northern Ireland totalling £8.4 million ($17.4 million) for long-term support and maintenance services of its health information systems, including an option for one of the hospitals to progress to iSOFT’s next-generation Lorenzo solution.

Under the agreements with the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, iSOFT will continue to provide services until 2015 for its Clinicom patient management system to all nine of the major acute hospitals that currently use the solution. The deal includes the right to use Lorenzo at one of the hospitals until 2015.

iSOFT also agreed to support its primary care solution with 68 GP practices for a further three years, with an option to extend this contract by an additional year. In both cases, iSOFT is offering new functions, some of which are specific to the health system in Northern Ireland.

iSOFT is installing the latest version of Clinicom in the hospitals, which also have the option to add a range of software modules such as bed management and ordering of pathology tests online. A switch to new software is now possible after a separate project to update computer hardware to HP’s latest server technology, which will also improve performance and resilience.

The contracts total £998,000 ($2.1 million) in license fees, £435,000 ($902,000) for services, and £6.95 million ($14.4 million) for support and maintenance, including the option to extend the primary care contract for a year.

“Northern Ireland is an important market for iSOFT, and these contracts put us in prime position to broaden our presence, offer additional services and collaborate in the highly innovative healthcare projects currently being considered,” said Adrian Stevens, Managing Director of iSOFT UK and Ireland.