Implementation An Information Technology Coup

Thursday, 26 April 2007, 1:28 pm
Press Release: Waikato District Health Board

26 April 2007

Large Scale Implementation An Information Technology Coup

The biggest administrative software upgrade ever undertaken by a New Zealand area health board, a $7.2 million upgrade of Waikato District Health Board's computerised client administration system (CAS) is complete

iPatient Manager (i.PM) was switched on early on Easter Saturday at the Hamilton, Thames, Te Kuiti, Tokoroa, Taumarunui Hospitals (four T sites) and all community outreach centres replacing Hospro, a 15-year-old system used for bookings, discharging and transferring patients.

Waikato DHB Chief Information Officer Alan Grainer said the switch-over went remarkably well. There were no problems reported at the health board's four T sites and only minor issues, in Hamilton.

The implementation of the system was four years in the planning and involved hours of training with more than 2000 health board staff before the Easter Weekend switch over.

Mr Grainer said iSOFT, one of the world's leading suppliers of advanced software applications for the healthcare sector, had made the changeover seamlessly with no disruption to hospital services.

The new i.PM system manages patients better along their journey through Waikato District Health Board care.

From an IT perspective CAS was an extensive project requiring the acquisition of new hardware, software configuration, interface development and decommissioning of the old Hospro application.

A team from the DHB’s information services department worked alongside iSOFT for six months to ensure the smooth implementation of the new system.

This has been the largest implementation of iSOFT’s i.PM product in New Zealand. The introduction of i.PM across one of NZ’s biggest and widest geographically split DHBs is a real accomplishment.

Introducing an IT solution in an organisation as complex and large as the WDHB was always going to be a challenge. Such a big task required extensive planning and collaboration from a wide range of suppliers including iSOFT, Gen-i, HP, Citrix Microsoft and Telecom. Each supplier was brought on board because of the tailored solutions they offered to the project. Representatives from each organisation were actively involved in planning and discussions to make certain all systems would run as smoothly as possible.

“Over a weekend we went from a slow and outdated system to a modern system that is more efficient and offers better stability,” said Mr Grainer. “It is a real tribute to the commitment and expertise of our team of DHB staff and contractors who have worked on this project for several years.”

i.PM allows better integration with other computer systems used throughout the DHB and community. Consolidating information from all the hospital systems allows the DHB to provide a complete record for each patient. This will reduce the time spent searching for patient notes, eliminate duplication and provide more timely and accurate information. The overall result is better quality patient care.

For the first time all the DHB’s hospitals, mental health and community facilities will be using the same IT system. This allows for improved data consistency and better access to information. “The goal is to provide clinical staff with the ability to access a single view of the patient in the most appropriate way, therefore ensuring the best outcome for both patient and organisation,” said Programme Office Manager, Christopher Goldsmith

As part of the project a state of the art off-site computer centre was created to address the quantified business risk from the existing facility and to provide future capacity for growth. This venture by the Waikato DHB sets the benchmark for other DHBs to follow in using IT to help improve service delivery to patients.

Over 850,000 patient demographic records were successfully migrated to the new system. This migration involved hours of testing, checking and correcting. When you are dealing with patient safety it is imperative you get things right.

“We chose to clean the data as we want to ensure that when our staff started using i.PM they were working with good quality data,” said Configuration Project Manager Dave Stearns.

While certainly the biggest, this project is only one of a series of ongoing strategic initiatives in the pipeline to bring Waikato DHB’s IT systems into the 21st century and change the way the health board works. This upgrade is the first stage in a programme of upgrade covering seven years and valued at $35m.

The implementation of i.PM is the foundation the DHB will build on in the future. While immediate improvements are already evident the true benefits of the massive work carried out over the Easter weekend probably won’t be fully realised till a few years down the track.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Waikato District Health Board

Healthy People. Excellent Care

Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.

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