The state's Department of Health has dumped the project's former title, HealthTec, and renamed it eHealthWA, as it attempts to put the controversial initiative back on track.
The change was revealed at an industry briefing last week where the Department of Health also laid out a new timetable for the project to vendors that are likely to bid for systems integration and hardware and software contracts.
The revamped program aims to overhaul the information systems used to support the state's public healthcare between 2008 and 2017.
The first systems are expected to be installed by June 30 next year, nearly two years behind the HealthTec schedule unveiled in 2004.
The delays mirror problems that other states, particularly NSW and Queensland, have had in delivering projects on public hospital information system on time and within budget.
WA Health has carved up the new eHealthWA program into five streams that will take between five and 10 years to complete - if the department is able to meet its revised deadlines.
The streams cover electronic health records, patient management and clinical information systems, network and server technology, improved links between information systems and medical equipment, and maintenance of existing platforms while new software and hardware is rolled out.
WA Health executive director for Health System Support Colin Xanthis told industry representatives at last week's briefing that streams such as e-health records would draw on standards in development at the National E-Health Transition Authority.
NEHTA has itself drawn fire over its efforts to develop standards that would allow private and public healthcare providers to adopt a national electronic health record system for Australian patients.
Mr Xanthis outlined a number of priorities for the first year of the project including the delivery of a new, state-wide pharmacy application and the replacement of some end-user equipment, including desktop and laptop computers.
WA Health runs about 16,000 PCs, 2000 laptops and 1000 servers.
He said vendors would be invited to compete for contracts through three methods that would be determined by the nature of the work that was on offer. Common use contracts, tenders and a combination of industry briefings and request for expressions of interest would be used for vendor selection.
Companies that are likely to bid for eHealthWA work include medical software makers Cerner, TrakHealth and iSoft, which is the subject of a pound stg. 166.3 million ($408 million) takeover bid from Australian firm IBA Health.
Systems integrators such as Accenture, Computer Services Corporation and IBM are also likely to bid, along with computer hardware and communications equipment makers.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Ben Woodhead
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 04.09.2007
