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NEC delivers Australia’s first hospital of the future |
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A whole new world of health care
Release Date : Tuesday, 02 Aug 2005
Epworth Eastern, Victoria’s newly built $85 million private hospital today became a show case of information technological ingenuity – with Australia’s foremost ICT Solutions Company NEC helping create Australia’s first hospital of the future.
The 223 bed surgical and oncology hospital marks a new generation of medical care centre that sees wireless technology become the centre piece of Epworth Eastern - revolutionising every aspect of the hospital’s day to day operations from patient management to electronic prescription of pharmaceuticals to preoperative, operative and post operative care.
NEC Business Solutions which has worked closely with Epworth Eastern for 10 months developing and tailoring information technology systems for Australia’s newest state-of-the-art hospital sees Epworth become the country’s leader in health care reform and management through its new site.
The deployment of NEC’s technology by Epworth creates a hospital so technologically advanced it will be the model by which existing and future hospitals throughout Australia (public and private) base themselves on.
The emergence of Epworth Eastern, according to NEC Business Solutions managing director Riaki Tanaka, will have the potential to force hospitals Australia-wide to focus on the pivotal importance of operating in a technologically advanced environment - significantly providing improved and greater efficiency in patient care and hospital management on all levels.
As Australia’s first hospital of the future, Epworth Eastern will provide:
- Organisation-wide computer access for all staff and external providers that need it
- Mobile computing and telephony for a workforce that needs access to information or information systems wherever they are working
- Simplified, yet robust security to enable straightforward access to information systems
- The unique potential for doctors to get value from pertinent use of systems to reduce administration during time at the hospital or from consulting rooms, improve access to patient-centric information and provide better reporting on clinical activity and outcomes
- Centralised software deployment from a single point of entry
- Robust infrastructure
- Implemented underlying technologies—document management, wireless infrastructure and systems integration—that will ready the hospital for a full Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Mr Tanaka said Epworth Eastern aims to provide information and communications technology that will benefit staff and health providers in their pursuit of the organisation’s objectives.
“Technology purchases in the health industry,” Mr Tanaka said, “have traditionally been based on the most cost-effective contribution to objectives of health service delivery. This has meant dedicated clinical technology within a given specialty has typically been the priority for investment.”
Dr Peter Hughes, Epworth Eastern Hospital’s executive director said, the NEC Hospital ICT solution will change the way the hospital will work to assist and deliver a higher quality of care and service. “It will create operational efficiencies to ensure our patients experience a safer and highly responsive health care experience. What we are seeking to obtain are realizable, tangible benefits for our patients, our clinical resources and our hospital, through automating manual work processes and challenging and enhancing tradional work practices.”
According to Mr Tanaka, communicational devices and platforms and information technology applications were now becoming less expensive and easier to use and delivering greater value from their implementation.”That means the business cases for adoption are better supported. In the case of ICT, new sites above all others present unique opportunities to achieve more with less.”
He said what NEC has delivered has been a technology platform and solution for a new breed of hospital that raises the bar in the health industry while creating an environment that takes hospital management and patient care to a whole new level not yet experienced in Australia.”
Mr Tanaka said Epworth Eastern gave NEC the opportunity to build a hospital of its calibre from the ground up. “Our goal was to ensure maximum flexibility and efficiencies across hopsital operations and we have delivered superior results.”
Media enquiries:
George Hazim
National Manager,
Public Affairs/Media & Government Relations
0408 336 200
george.hazim@nec.com.au
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