Clinical system has single view

By RICHARD PAMATATAU


The Waikato District Health Board has kicked off its $15 million information systems upgrade with a clinical information system from Auckland's IHealth.

The system offers clinical staff a single screen view of all patient information so long as it is available on a computer database.

The board is responsible for providing a broad range of health services to about 320,000 people, through one base hospital in Hamilton, supported by community-based staff and community hospitals in Thames, Taumarunui, Te Kuiti and Tokoroa.

Kim Wong, a renal physician on the board's clinical work station and document management steering committee, said the new system would help frontline staff improve their patient care.

The hospitals in the board area were not going paperless, said Wong, but the new system meant a lot less paper and quicker information access.

"We will use it to improve everything from admission speed to patient service and outcomes."

The next step was to tidy up the information while remembering that the computer was not a magic device that worked in isolation.

Waikato's information plan has just received board approval and over the next three years will see significant changes made to its information management.

The board's chief information officer, David Menzies, said the plan was about getting the existing systems into a better state so resources could be managed better.

Part of that has seen the board also upgrade its servers with new machines from Hewlett Packard and it is likely its 2200 personal computers will be replaced over the next few years.

Menzies would not say how much had been spent on the servers.

The plan says there is "currently a multiplicity of systems to meet the information requirements of the organisation.

"These systems operate across a range of technology platforms, and in the main are not integrated".

Menzies said shoring them up was a priority and that would see the acquisition of some new software.

The existing systems still performed the functions required but were not interconnected, he said.

Among the systems being looked at are clinical, finance, human resources, support and resource utilisation.

Other projects identified by the plan are in the technology, infrastructure and architecture area.

Among the non-capital programmes being considered are training, security, planning, research, standards and project and programme maintenance.

The plan also recommends that the board introduce an in-house software development team and progress with "quick win" systems where required.



An application development team would also foster the development of skills within the organisation to better manage the environment and provide a means of keeping intellectual property within the board.

Menzies said that over the next three years the client administration, pharmacy and document management systems would be replaced or upgraded, as well as the communications infrastructure.

Telecom at present has the communications contract for the board.