Health boards look to share resources

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

District Health Boards are looking to pare back costs with a computer and communications sharing arrangement that could lead to a single national health IT super system.

It is a throwback to pre-90s health computing that led to the creation of large systems known as bureaus that were then spurned by hospitals adopting a free-market approach to IT system selection.

That approach led to millions of dollars being wasted as the 21 crown health enterprises spent up on disparate systems, many of which have since been junked.

A prime example was the $40 million spent by the Auckland Area Health Board in 1990 on a system approved by then Health Minister Maurice Williamson. But it never met its key performance criteria.

The recent "Health Alliance" collaboration between Counties Manukau and Waitemata District Health Boards called Project Fusion that brought a single computer and communications infrastructure may be the driver.

Phil Brimacombe, Health Alliance chief information officer, said the project had been of huge benefit to the patients, hospitals and clinicians working in the region because it created an environment to host a range of applications.

Other non-clinical services such as payroll and procurement were shared under Health Alliance. The intention was to cut costs in IT but big efficiencies had been won in information management across the health boards, he said.

Brimacombe said 1200 applications were discovered across the region.

"At least we know they are there now because in the past no one knew what was happening and some streamlining has occurred.

Under Project Fusion clinicians could log in anywhere on the network.

Brimacombe said one project, "web clair", allowed lab results across the region to be share by all clinicians, including those at Auckland, which was not part of the Health Alliance.

Jo Wheat-Connelly, Northland District Health Board chief information officer, said her organisation was just starting to look at a shared services model.

"We have to reduce the total cost of ownership at a regional level and there are things in there to be leveraged," she said.

Her capital budget was about $1.5 million a year and she had a staff of 21.

Using a shared services model meant that if the architecture was standardised and the buying power of a bigger organisation was used then better information systems could be created.

John Tolchard, Southland District Health Board project director for information systems, said it was negotiating for a new patient management system from Isoft.

It would replace Oracare and might eventually be used on the West Coast and in Dunedin.

He said work was also being done on a single shared hardware environment but plans for that had not been presented.

The Canterbury board's chief information officer, Chris Dever, said shared services in IT and software were a good idea but he is not sure what his group would do.

The Waikato District Health Board's senior project officer, Mark Spittal, said his hospital has a tender out for a new patient management system.

Once a decision is made Waikato would jettison its problematic Fujitsu system.

Spittal said there was an agreement in the Midland health region for health organisations to move in one direction and it was likely that the system it selected would be used eventually round the region.