New hospital software that can help to improve patient safety and recovery, designed within the NHS, has been made commercially available in the UK.

The Quality Management System (QMS) from LHC (IT) Ltd provides an efficient way to collect quality and performance data from wards, departments and systems across the hospital, and then analyse it with graphs and ratings for use by hospital managers.

The QMS was designed by nursing and quality management staff at the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust. Health Enterprise East (HEE), the region's NHS Innovation Hub, managed the technology transfer and commercial negotiations with LHC (IT) Ltd, which has licensed the technology for use in other hospitals.

The new system can define an NHS trust's quality metrics, targets, trajectories and audit criteria. It uses traffic lights, graphs and charts to illustrate performance and ratings against targets. It is easy to use with just 30 minutes' training.

Chandu Patil, HEE Senior Innovation Manager, said: "The QMS from Ipswich is a perfect example of the innovative use of IT and development of appropriate technology from the NHS, and we look forward to adoption of this technology by other hospitals."

"Working onsite at Ipswich Hospital each day has allowed me to see clearly the requirements from the team, whose input in building the QMS has been invaluable," said Phil Reid, Managing Director of LHC (IT) Ltd.

LHC (IT) Ltd is a start-up company based in Ipswich. It provides the software licence, support and training needed to set up and run QMS.

HEE provides IP management services to NHS Trusts across the region. For medtech companies, HEE facilitates access to NHS expertise and provides advice on clinical evaluation and adoption of devices.

 
QMS team: Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, HEE and LHC (IT) Ltd