Background

Hospital budgets are tight and hospital management understandably want to, and indeed in many cases have to, prioritise patient services in order to meet targets. However there are many demands on budgets from non-front line services which if not met could lead to potentially damaging consequences for the hospital.

Our client wanted to extend encryption of electronic patient records and improve the security of the computers/devices which could access such records. Driven by concerns such as preventing unauthorised access to records and reducing the risk of data loss or data corruption, the project also offered significant productivity benefits by allowing greater remote working. In conjunction with the software provider the hospital identified a solution which met their needs. The challenge was that it was proving difficult to justify the costs when faced with demands from front line services.

Our Solution

Working with our specialist providers of software finance we were able to structure a finance agreement which helped the hospital to spread the cost of the new software over three years, together with some of the costs of installation and training. With this significant reduction in the burden on their annual budget, the hospital was able to deliver the project thus protecting patient records without jeopardising front line services.

"It's difficult to imagine how we would have been able to deliver this project without the ability to spread the costs. Having never used finance before, Bluestone were extremely helpful and guided us through the whole process making everything very straightforward."