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The healthcare landscape is changing rapidly.
And the parameters of the change are well known: the ageing population, the increase in the number of chronically ill,
the need for more multi-disciplinary cooperation in the hospital and in the health region, the shorter bed stays,
the rise of the cost of equipment, the structural under-financing, the empowered patients.
This is the context in which hospitals have to struggle for survival. Increasing efficiency and improving service are a must.
In recent years, concepts such as process control, ERP and e-business have literally transformed many areas of
economic life -but not healthcare. Even today, the huge challenges which the sector faces are often reduced to
'a lack of access to relevant information', soon to disappear with the progressive adoption of electronic patient records.
Unfortunately, this is too simple an analysis. Processes need urgent attention.
Twenty years ago, industry discovered that its sole attention for the production process had reached its limits.
By discovering logistics -making available the right resources at the right time-
the germs were planted for a true revolution in efficiency and service that has led to unprecedented progress.
Healthcare can learn from this. Coordinating resources as doctors, rooms, equipment, materials, patient transport
and nurses is definitely no simple task, but its impact on efficiency, quality and service cannot be over-estimated.
At least 80% of all hospital activity could be planned. Unfortunately, the tools to do so do not exist.
Clinical pathways, workflow and order entry systems are undoubtedly useful, if not necessary, instruments for change
but they highlight the need for a planning solution rather than providing it.
The planning function in hospitals is immature and fragmented. Outpatient consultations, imaging and operations are
all managed in different systems. As to beds or transport, they are in the best case listed, rather than planned.
What hospital information systems (HIS) lack is a powerful and sophisticated generic, enterprise-wide planning layer.
While SOA -Service Oriented Architecture- is in everyone's mouth and the whole world experiences its benefits,
many in healthcare still dream of one HIS system, capable of all. The truth is that patient logistics has become such
an immensely complex field that only dedicated, sophisticated software can address it. That software does not need to bother
with other systems. It is no more or less than a so-called 'service-component', i.e. an instance that receives service requests
from the main system and returns the answer instantly in a universal format (service provision).
In healthcare, the revolution is still to start. Inside the hospital, where substantial productivity increases and service
improvements are desperately needed. But also in the interaction with the healthcare community.
Why is it that the average referral process remains a pain? Why does a dialysis patient need to bother time and again busy staff
for his weekly appointment? These challenges can be met by robust and innovative software that is at the service of the HIS.
And parts of which can be made accessible via the Internet thereby obeying to sophisticated rules sets.
Day by day, this vision wins ground. It strengthens us in our ambition to consolidate our position as the leading provider
of best in class software for patient logistics.
For more information, download the UltraGenda white paper 'Hospital-wide scheduling and appointment bookings in the Internet age' by clicking here.
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