Health Planning Software Succeeds Internationally

Emendo's Healthcare Capacity Planning Software Succeeding Internationally

Media release, 30 April 2009, Emendo Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand: Christchurch based capacity planning specialists Emendo are in an expansionary phase with significant plans for recruitment and growth due to unprecedented interest in their CapPlan software for the healthcare sector.

Implementations including four New Zealand DHBs (8 hospitals), six hospitals in Australia, one in the UK and two new sites in Canada have seen revenue growth of 267% over the last two years, with several major offshore contracts pending.

Demand from Australia has been particularly strong, with deals building on a very successful implementation at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia.

CEO Dave Tinkler says that Emendo's CapPlan modules for Emergency Departments, Operating Theatre and Inpatients in particular have drawn strong international interest, due to pressure on the healthcare sector worldwide to reduce waiting lists, speed up time through emergency departments and operate more cost-effectively.

"CapPlan has been developed over a number of years in conjunction with Health Boards to assist managers to run hospitals as efficiently as possible."

The software puts hard data on the desktops of staff making decisions on a daily basis, about patient flow, staffing, theatre scheduling and other critical management tasks.

Tinkler says one of the biggest advantages of the CapPlan software is that it gives an overview of how a whole hospital is functioning, rather than each department operating independently.

"Flow and communication between departments is increased dramatically when staff can quickly see where demand is greatest and where resources can be reallocated when required.

"CapPlan supports evidence-based decision making, where in the past, forward planning decisions around staffing in particular may have been based on less tangible information."

Dot McKeen, Service Manager Acute Care and Resources at the Counties-Manukau DHB, agrees that CapPlan is a powerful tool that makes the status of the entire hospital immediately visible to staff.

"The CapPlan dashboard is seen on every computer screen in the hospital, so every staff member can see at a glance exactly where the pressure is, how many resources are available in what departments, and what trends are occurring."

McKeen anticipates that CapPlan will be particularly valuable in planning for annual events like the Christmas holiday period, and for less regular events like last year's junior doctor strike.

"Because we have CapPlan in place, we will be able to plan in advance for those events, and ensure we were not overstaffed for the holiday period – which is usually quieter due to patients wanting to be at home over Christmas. We could also plan very efficiently to cover the period around the doctors strike, when there were less patients in the hospital during the strike, but a predictable surge in bed occupancies immediately afterwards."

Counties- Manukau implemented the full version of CapPlan's Inpatients and Emergency Visibility modules mid-2008 and according to CMDHB's General Manager Revenue and Business Development, Tony Hickmott, the CapPlan data and modelling functions are enabling the organisation to more effectively focus on forward planning and strategy.

"Without some form of capacity planning, hospitals are flying blind. CapPlan enables the CMDHB to forward plan so we can better match nursing resources to expected occupancy. The suite of reports in CapPlan are very useful to focus on areas for improvement and we know from experience that what gets reported on, gets acted upon."

Emendo founder Nick Burns emphasises that CapPlan is designed to help health sector managers plan, monitor and manage the flow of patients and staffing resources through their hospitals and after care facilities.

"The modelling ability of CapPlan means that staff and bed availability can be adjusted as soon as an event occurs or is known to be occurring and therefore better management decisions can be made.

"CapPlan is revolutionary for hospital managers who have previously dealt with a lot of unpredictability – in reality, forecasting accurately is key to good management, and using this approach, that is just as possible within the health sector as any other form of enterprise."

About Emendo:

Since its inception in 2002, privately held company Emendo has worked with healthcare organisations around the world from its base in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Emendo specialises in improving the operational performance of hospitals by providing capacity planning consulting services, business analysis and enabling software in a single solution – CapPlan.

CapPlan software is supported internationally by a network of regionally based partners that specialise in capacity planning.

www.emendo.co.nz

About CapPlan:

CapPlan combines capacity planning services with decision-support software to provide timely information that guides operational decision-making.

The software is unique in that it accurately forecasts future patient activity, on an ongoing basis, and identifies potential congestion or overcapacity in the care process. By analysing patient trends, mapping workloads, allocating appropriate resources and adjusting operational plans, in real time, CapPlan benefits many facets of hospital operations.

CapPlan's Emergency Visibility, Inpatient and Theatre Flow modules enable the proactive and advance management of rosters and workloads; patient flow; discharge management and length of stay; and identification and removal of unnecessary costs.

CapPlan is currently being used by Canterbury DHB; Waikato DHB; Waitemata DHB; Counties-Manukau DHB; Royal Adelaide Hospital; Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (Perth); Royal Perth Hospital; Fremantle Hospital; King Edward Hospital (Perth); Princess Margaret Hospital (Perth); Bedford NHS Trust (UK), Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health (Vancouver).

ENDS

© Scoop Media