TrakHealth ‘FastTraks’ Mercy Hospital to Electronic Patient Records with
New Web-based Hospital Information System

Dunedin, New Zealand – January 2007. Australian healthcare solutions provider, TrakHealth, today announced its second New Zealand contract win since its recent launch into the NZ market, supplying Mercy Hospital in Dunedin with integrated Webbased patient administration and clinicals software to achieve a hospital-wide Electronic Patient Record (EPR).

TrakHealth’s TrakCare Web-based hospital information system is being implemented in two phases. The first phase – scheduled for July 1, 2007 – replaces an existing patient administration system. Offering improvements in Mercy Hospital’s work practices, it will manage bookings, admissions, theatre management, billing and discharges, and record patient demographics.

The second phase – scheduled for 2008 – will see the implementation of TrakHealth’s Clinicals solution with a hospital-wide Electronic Patient Record. The solution will also be integrated with existing financial, pathology, pharmacy, nurse management, and diet and menu systems using TrakHealth’s “FastTrak to EPR”.

FastTrak to EPR is a powerful combination of innovative architecture, modern technologies, and streamlined implementation methodologies that together rapidly deliver a Web-based Electronic Patient Record. TrakHealth has already employed these capabililties to integrate with New Zealand’s National Health Index (NHI).

TrakHealth’s solution was chosen ahead of three other software vendors because it best met Mercy Hospital’s functional requirements and offered the best platform to achieve a hospital-wide EPR, according to the private hospital’s CEO, Michael Woodhouse.

“We could see in TrakHealth the future,” said Woodhouse. “The question was, as a small hospital, was Trak the shiny red apple we couldn’t afford. The more we investigated, the more we realised that going with a system with less functionality would be a false economy. Unless we make the sort of technology leaps that Trak provides, we may get left behind.

“The Electronic Patient Record offers Mercy Hospital a significant advantage in patient safety through the control and reduction of preventable errors,” said Woodhouse. “With online prescriptions and lab test results, care pathways in an electronic form are far more effective, efficient and safe. The EPR has been the gold standard for many years, and now TrakCare can deliver it cost-effectively for a hospital of our size.”

Efficiencies will be achieved through the replacement of paper-based and manual processes with electronic ones, reducing the time spent entering data and making information readily available at the patient’s point of care.

Every department within Mercy Hospital will eventually use TrakCare, said Woodhouse. “Initially, there will be more widespread use of the patient administration system, but the real cascading will come when we start to record progress notes and observations as the patient moves through the hospital.”

The higher level of integration between systems offers significant benefits in process improvement, said Woodhouse. These benefits include streamlined admissions and discharges and savings through more accurate billing and inventory control. The hospital’s reporting systems will also be made more efficient and able to provide better quality information to decision-makers and executive management.

Dunedin-based Mercy Hospital is the only private hospital in the Otago region of New Zealand offering a full range of surgical procedures. Founded in 1936 by the Sisters of Mercy, the 66-bed hospital manages around 6000 patient admissions annually.

About TrakHealth
Founded in 1991, Australian-based TrakHealth (www.TrakHealth.com) develops and markets the TrakCare Web-based healthcare information system (HIS), providing improved care for every person by empowering every healthcare professional. Setting TrakCare apart is the revolutionary “FastTrak to EPR,” a combination of technology, architecture and methodology that delivers patient-centric care solutions at unmatched speeds with EPR benefits realised from the very first module. Installed in leading healthcare organisations in over 25 countries, TrakCare quickly and seamlessly integrates EPR information from existing legacy systems and multi-vendor solutions. TrakCare’s unrivalled flexibility means that systems can be easily customised to work the way healthcare professionals work.