St George’s Hospital - InterSystems Case Study...St George’s Hospital INTER SYSTEMS TRAK CARE...
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Had St George’s Hospital intentionally set about to trial the integration capabilities of InterSystems TrakCare™ Web-based healthcare information system, it probably could not have devised a more strenuous test than the New Zealand government’s mandatory integration requirements. After evaluating all of the competing sys- tems supported in New Zealand, St George’s, one of the country’s leading private hospitals, selected TrakCare to replace an older Galen healthcare information system. Before the hos- pital could gain the expected benefits from bet- ter understanding its care costs and integration with external systems, however, InterSystems first had to integrate TrakCare with New Zealand’s National Health Index (NHI). “Integration with the NHI was a critical piece for InterSystems,” says Greg Brooks, Finance Manager for St George’s Hospital. “It was not a simple task – other vendors said they would have a lot of difficulty in getting NHI compliance.” TrakCare's ability to quickly integrate with the National Health Index demonstrated how easy it would be for St George’s Hospital to integrate with other healthcare systems, such as external pathology and radiology. “Having an integration platform built into TrakCare gives you the confidence that there is a great deal of flexibility, no matter what happens in the future,” says Brooks. The ‘FastTrak to EPR’ rapid integration capability within TrakCare makes this possible. Swift boost to the bottom line Phase one of the hospital’s TrakCare rollout has seen it create a Patient Administration System (PAS) with a hospital-wide Electronic Patient Record (EPR), Operating Theatre Management, and Maternity Management. InterSystems worked with the hospital to cus- tomise the software for New Zealand conditions. St George’s Hospital Gets on the ‘FastTrak’ to Electronic Patient Records St George’s Hospital INTERSYSTEMS TRAKCARE CASE STUDY Flexibility ■ Rapid integration ■ Cost management ■ “Having an integration platform built into TrakCare gives you the confidence that there is a great deal of flexibility, no matter what happens in the future.”
Transcript of St George’s Hospital - InterSystems Case Study...St George’s Hospital INTER SYSTEMS TRAK CARE...
Had St George’s Hospital intentionally setabout to trial the integration capabilities ofInterSystems TrakCare™ Web-based healthcareinformation system, it probably could not havedevised a more strenuous test than the NewZealand government’s mandatory integrationrequirements.After evaluating all of the competing sys-tems supported in New Zealand, St George’s,one of the country’s leading private hospitals,selected TrakCare to replace an older Galenhealthcare information system. Before the hos-pital could gain the expected benefits from bet-ter understanding its care costs and integrationwith external systems, however, InterSystemsfirst had to integrate TrakCare with NewZealand’s National Health Index (NHI).“Integration with the NHI was a criticalpiece for InterSystems,” says Greg Brooks,Finance Manager for St George’s Hospital.“It was not a simple task – other vendors saidthey would have a lot of difficulty in gettingNHI compliance.”
TrakCare's ability to quickly integrate withthe National Health Index demonstrated howeasy it would be for St George’s Hospital tointegrate with other healthcare systems, suchas external pathology and radiology. “Having anintegration platform built into TrakCare givesyou the confidence that there is a great deal offlexibility, no matterwhat happens in thefuture,” says Brooks. The‘FastTrak to EPR’ rapidintegration capabilitywithin TrakCare makesthis possible.Swift boost to the bottom linePhase one of the hospital’s TrakCare rollouthas seen it create a Patient AdministrationSystem (PAS) with a hospital-wide ElectronicPatient Record (EPR), Operating TheatreManagement, and Maternity Management.InterSystems worked with the hospital to cus-tomise the software for New Zealand conditions.
St George’s Hospital Gets on the ‘FastTrak’ toElectronic Patient Records
St George’s Hospital
INTERSYSTEMS TRAKCARE CASE STUDY
Flexibility �
Rapid integration �
Cost management �
“Having an integration platformbuilt into TrakCare gives you theconfidence that there is a greatdeal of flexibility, no matter whathappens in the future.”
InterSystems CorporationWorld HeadquartersOne Memorial DriveCambridge, MA 02142-1356Tel: +1.617.621.0600Fax: +1.617.494.1631InterSystems.com
InterSystems TrakCare is a trademark of InterSystems Corporation. Other product names are trademarks of their respective vendors.© copyright 2008 InterSystems Corporation. All rights reserved. 12-08
Success has been swift in coming: evenwith conversion and NHI certification the soft-ware took just eight months to implement andhas put the hospital on the leading edge ofworldwide healthcare practices.“We are one of the few hospitals wherenursing staff are users of the clinical system,where they enter data at the point of care,”says Brooks. “It is that automation plus thenew billing support which gives us a lot ofinformation about what is being used.”The availability of better quality informa-tion has a tangible effect on St George’s bottomline, he adds. “With medical supplies, it is notunusual for a disposable item to be A$300-A$400; laproscopic staplers can be A$1000. Ifyou miss one of these then your ability tomake a profit goes out the window. Even smallitems make a difference. If you don’t includesutures you’d be surprised how quickly yourmargins are eroded.”Managing profit margins is just one ofBrooks’ concerns. St George’s is also grapplingwith an increasingly complex billing environ-ment as multiple payers including healthfunds, New Zealand’s Accident CompensationCorporation, and surgeon groups can all havedifferent billing requirements, making itimportant for Brooks and his team to betterunderstand and analyse patient care costs.“It is important to know exactly what ourcosts are and compare them with the contractprice, and that is where TrakCare comes in,”says Brooks.
From care provider to service providerSt George’s Hospital also plans to makemore use of TrakCare in the future and hasplanned a second phase of its implementationthat will see it use the software to deliverMedical Records Tracking, integration withexternal pathology and radiology systems, andClinical Discharge Summaries which can becommunicated externally to surgeons andgeneral practitioners.“With phase two, we will look at integratingelectronic records from radiology and patholo-gy providers, and communicating them toexternal clinicians,” says Brooks. “We alsowant to give system access to primary userslike surgeons so they can access the systemand see what theatre space is available, forexample. There will be a lot of innovationgoing forward.”Most importantly, TrakCare has been ableto achieve these outcomes without increasingSt. George’s IT budget.“When we visited sites in Australia and sawthe number of people required to maintaincompeting systems, we were very concerned,”says Brooks. “We have a single administratorwho looks after all our computer systems.The last thing we wanted to do was employextra people costing hundreds of thousands ofdollars a year. TrakCare has let us achieve ourgoals without needing more staff.”
