Case Studies

  • MELBOURNE HEALTH
    Performance Measurement Unit Upgrade

The Challenge

Melbourne Health was faced with the complex challenge of implementing a new Patient Administration System (PAS) under the HealthSMART program. Health IQ was brought in after it was decided that we had the appropriate high-level expertise, experience and products needed to make these changes.

Melbourne Health’s information flows were unable to deliver vital management information such as Executive Scorecard and Critical Reports. The existing information flow relied on hard-coded data mapping and direct queries from the legacy HOMER PAS, which was being replaced.

Health IQ was given a two-month window to work with Melbourne Health designing, developing and implementing crucial conversions of their internal applications. This included report development and accuracy testing. We were also charged with improving the Performance Measurement System, a system that had both speed and stability issues and was operating on soon-to-be unsupported technology.

Activity

Health IQ was enthusiastic about taking on this project as it presented a fantastic opportunity to work closely with one of Victoria’s most dynamic health organisations. Alongside Melbourne Health we were able to implement a program of innovative data management solutions. The process was thorough and involved a series of consultative steps that allowed for ongoing executive reporting capabilities.

Initially we provided a detailed analysis of the existing executive reporting structure to determine whether a complete rebuild of business intelligence system was possible in the time provided. Given the complexity of the system and its requirements we felt the most prudent and time-effective solution was to ensure that the data flow continued to feed into the existing Melbourne Health PMU Reporting Database.

Health Central provided the perfect solution as it supplied critical data in a secure, local and easily accessible format. This allowed for a redesign of the PMU System altering the flow of data from the legacy HOMER system.

Health IQ conducted data mapping exercises and we were able to resolve several hard-coding issues. This in turn allowed for a more configurable environment for future developments to be built upon. We also developed and implemented a strategy that addressed performance and reliability issues within the PMU technical environment. Finally, working with Melbourne Health’s IT Department, we updated the database software from SQL Server 2000, converting all ETL packages to the new technology.

The Architecture

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The Outcome

Health IQ seek to provide health organisations with the tools they need to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible, saving them both time and money. When it came to Melbourne Health we aimed to give the organisation timely access to the vital management information they needed within the two-month window required. Crucially, Executive Scorecard and Critical Reports were available to Melbourne Health from day one using the new Patient Administration System (PAS).

As with many of our business and IT solutions we sought to enable Melbourne Health to steadily migrate to more current technologies from appropriate sources, rather than employing a “big bang” approach.

Since the implementation of the new system the time taken to run End-of-Month processes has dropped by over 90%. We have dramatically increased the productivity of the Performance Measurement Unit through the implementation of a faster data environment and it now requires significantly less maintenance effort as it is a current and stable system. As a direct consequence of these factors PMU staff have been freed up and are now available for other more valuable activities.

Health IQ is proud to have worked with Melbourne Health to implement an effective, scalable, expandable, robust and fully documented solution for the organisation at a reasonable cost. Importantly we did this without disruption to either business functioning or reporting to upper management. Melbourne Health’s new PMU system has had a dramatic and positive effect on the way that information is delivered throughout the organisation.


  • VICNISS
    Integration And Software

The Challenge

At Health IQ we are comfortable working within existing frameworks and we get excited about providing intelligent, business savvy solutions for VICNISS. In 2008 we were asked by VICNISS to provide them with an innovative data integration solution for their infection control system, SHIINe. They challenged us to develop SHIINe’s capabilities but crucially they wanted to minimise manual data entry and enable an automated database population.

The central aim of VICNISS is to manage the collection and collation of vital data associated with healthcare associated infections in acute care settings. Surveillance of infections is internationally accepted as a cornerstone of infection control. VICNISS also works with hospitals in designing and implementing interventions aimed at lowering infection rates.

VICNISS commissioned their original SHIINe application to provide them with the long-term electronic aggregation of data in a central repository. This, in turn, would provide relevant information to hospital Infection Control Practitioners (ICPs).

While SHIINe met VICNISS immediate needs, the integration and expansion of the application scope was considered vital to continuing to meet their long-term goals.

The Activity

Health IQ implemented a smart integration solution based on the Java CAPS platform, a solution that is now capable of supporting the transference of data into the SHIINe application. This decision was based on HealthSMARTs state-wide support of Java CAPS as the preferred integration engine.

VICNISS required HEALTHealth IQ’s solution to comfortably integrate with SHIINe’s reporting functionality as it allowed for ongoing automated data capture. Since the integration solution was installed in 2008 Health IQ has provided a managed support service to health agencies across Victoria for both the SHIINe application and the SHIINe Java CAPS integration environments.

The Architecture

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The Outcome

Health IQ seeks to provide health organisations with economical and intelligent data solutions. Crucial to this is our coordination and strategic leadership role. Our work with VICNISS has resulted in an architecturally superior SHIINe application that is more stable, cheaper to support and easier to build upon. Given the nature of surveillance and the emergence from time to time of new infections which require monitoring, this attribute is an important feature of the application.

This updated and JAVA CAPS integrated SHIINe application is now being implemented in over 20 Victorian public hospitals and agencies and we have ensured that SHIINe’s data is now securely and efficiently derived from the source systems. Once SHIINe is implemented hospitals can do their own reporting when they choose rather than relying on VICNISS to provide data reports.

Our sophisticated knowledge and understanding of the health environment allows us to co-ordinate the implementation of SHIINe in hospitals more readily, providing these dynamic and changeable organisations with a much stronger installation base. Since the integration solution was installed Health IQ has provided 8 to 5, 7 day-a-week managed support service to all health agencies in Victoria who currently rely on the SHIINe application and the SHIINe Java CAPS integration environments. All on-site installation and integration is performed and managed by Health IQ.

The VICNISS and Health IQ partnership has been very successful and is a software integration that we are very proud of. Importantly it has has ensured the ongoing relevance and growth of SHIINe in Australian hospitals. This partnership has included a refactoring of the SHIINe data structure and redevelopment of the core application, ensuring easy extensibility and thus reducing future maintenance costs. This successful solution has been delivered with business and time constraints in mind, resulting in an affordable, dynamic and updateable infection surveillance system.