Uniting Healthcare opted to implement a data management system from US-vendor Cerner. However, given the complexity of diagnostic, patient-care, and treatment data, the process has proved a technical and systems management challenge.
“You can’t just buy a system like this. No matter what technology you go with essentially what you get is a tool set, and there’s a lot of work in configuring the business applications,” Armitage says. “You need to capture an immensely complex clinical and business process and the interactions of many different types of healthcare professionals.”
To date, the project has cost $35 million, with $10 million going into capital expenditure and the rest on IT systems support. The Cerner Millennium architecture used for Uniting Healthcare’s five installations holds more than two million separate patient records and is accessed and updated by roughly 700 professionals in delivering care to 150,000 patients per year.
“Some of the staff responded negatively because there are a lot more boxes to tick, and they have had to do some work to understand the way the data entry works, and the systems themselves are a bit green as well,” Armitage says. “Overall the response has been positive—most of the people who work here can see the bigger picture of where we are going so they are prepared for the change.”
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