2005

3 February 2005

iSOFT improves delivery of patient information across the far west

Far West Area Health Service Go-Lives with iSOFT’s Patient Management System

New South Wales – 3 February 2005 – Far West Area Health Service (FWAHS) has gone live with iSOFT’s advanced Patient Management System (i.PM). The implementation, which took 6 months to complete, has provided users with improved functionality and integrated patient care across the range of health services provided throughout the remote Area Health Service.

Far West has overcome a number of challenges. Among them is the vast geographical size of the Area and being the first Area to implement under the NSW State Based Build model. The Far West Patient Administration Team worked closely with iSOFT, NSW State Coordination Team and Western Sydney Alliance Management in order to accomplish the smooth implementation.

The State Base Build approach has a number of benefits for smaller and remote Area Health Services such as the reduction in cost and implementation time which allows the area to focus on delivering core healthcare services to the community.

Cathy Dyer, Area Director Population Health at Far West AHS, said: “In partnership with iSOFT and Western Sydney Alliance Management we have been able to lay the foundations for an integrated patient management system across our organisation. The State Base Build has allowed our staff to continue to focus on delivering outstanding patient care while IT expertise from iSOFT and Western Sydney Alliance Management assisted with implementation, configuration and hosting the new system. We are now well positioned for our organisations future strategic IT developments allowing us to deliver real benefits to our patients and staff.”

Far West AHS, which is geographically the largest but least populated Area Health Service in NSW, was established to focus on the health of remote communities in New South Wales. The Far West AHS provides hospital inpatient services, mental health and counselling, community health and primary health care services.

i.PM has been implemented across the Areas 9 sites including Broken Hill Hospital, Wilcannia Hospital and Wentworth Hospital to create a truly integrated Area Health Service. With over 250 users, i.PM now provides access to patient information including medical record numbers and demographic information across all sites.

The implementation of i.PM has created a single patient administration system across all sites in the Far West of NSW. This will enable consistent and reliable reporting to both State bodies and internally within the FWAHS organisation. In the future, i.PM will form the foundation from which clinical systems will operate.

Nigel Lutton, Managing Director of iSOFT Australia and New Zealand, said: “It has been extremely rewarding to work with Far West AHS in this exciting phase of their IT development. The collaboration between iSOFT, Far West AHS, the State Coordination Team and Western Sydney Alliance to achieve a truly integrated Area Health Service in such a remote part of NSW is an outstanding achievement and will go along way to improve patient outcomes in the area.”

“iSOFT is committed to working closely with our customers to create solutions which best fit their individual needs. Through our partnership with NSW Health we have been able to provide a flexible implementation approach which meets the end-user needs while facilitating the Departments strategy to create a standard State-Based configuration. This provides a solution which can be implemented at a lower cost and with shorter lead time, allowing smaller and remote sites to gain the benefits of world class applications such as i.PM”

The implementation of i.PM is a major step towards Far West AHS achieving its vision of a fully electronic patient record. i.PM will enable Far West AHS to provide full end-to-end patient administration across the area. Staff will also benefit from integrated patient management facilities and access to up-to-date patient information” Mr Lutton added.

The state base build approach to implementation is currently being utilised to implement i.PM at a number of areas across NSW including Greater Southern from the already implemented Southern AHS, Wentworth from Western Sydney, Illawarra from South Eastern and New England from the Hunter, Justice Health and South Eastern Sydney AHS. iSOFT has yet again proven that it’s Health IT solutions, implementation approach and flexibility provides high end technology capability, at reduced cost and with reduced implementation timeframes, for any size of implementation, providing a standardised approach to IT implementation in NSW.

For more information please contact:

Jacki Willing

iSOFT Group plc

Tel: +61 (0) 2 9458 3039

Fax: +61 (0) 2 9458 3001

Email: jacki.willing@isoftaus.com.au