The e-health initiative aims to make two wards paperless, and if it's successful Waitemata DHB will spread it to other services.
Born prematurely, Maria Williams depends on the high-tech world of North Shore Hospital's special care baby unit. So it's fitting that the unit will become the hub for a new technological step forward.
The aim there and on the haematology ward is to do away with the trolley-loads of patient records and use electronic devices instead.
Staff will be able to log into cloud-based systems to access patient records online.
"Information becomes immediately available at the bedside and it also means we can go as paperless as possible on our wards," says Waitemata DHB chief executive Dale Bramley.
Paperless will mean doctors and nurses can spend more time with their patients instead of doing admin.
"Some patients generate up to 100 pieces of paper," says Orion Health chief executive Ian McCrae. "That's forms and other documents, and so nurses and doctors can be doing a lot of administrative work. Really we want them back in looking after patients."
It will also, hopefully, reduce mistakes and time wasted from lost records.
"Anyone who has been into a hospital will know they often get the same question many times," says Mr Bramley. "It will definitely reduce duplication and we hope reduce errors as well, because it will be there electronically in one source of truth."
The move, developed with health software company Orion Health, should cut wastage too.
Six billion dollars a year is allocated to the wastage that comes from printing out thousands of forms, or ordering duplicate tests when paperwork goes missing.
The new technology will be refined as the doctors and nurses work with it. The hope is to expand it to other wards, other hospitals and, eventually, export it around the world.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Jane Luscombe
Quelle/Source: 3News NZ, 05.07.2014
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
