Report: No one formula guarantees health IT success
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The report, “Best practices: Norway's hospital evolution-A tale of two cities," compares the successful implementation of integrated hospital networks in newly built facilities in both St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim and Ahus Hospital in Oslo.
The projects, which involved full replacement of old facilities in order to create the digital hospitals, used different methods to implement their health IT vision.
Jan Duffy, research director, IDC Health Insights, said: “St .Olavs used a campus-like facility with six clinical centers built around a central plaza while Ahus a large multi-purpose facility.”
The report compares the technologies used by the St. Olavs project, which were very young and unproven when they were selected in 1991, with the more mature technology available when Ahus began implementing them in 2001.
St Olavs chose both a single-vendor solution and an outsourced solution. Ahus, in contrast, chose a multi-vendor solution, retention of some legacy systems, and an IT environment managed internally.
As part of the move to a digital hospital, St. Olavs used 120 points of IT integration as well as 67 points of external integration.
It also implemented a high reliability, hospital-wide wireless network. The network now supports electronic devices, including IP-based patient terminals; nurse call systems; a wireless zone for guests; and integration with all notification and alarm systems. In addition, the network uses more than 5,250 PCs, 3,200 wireless IP telephones and 930 patient terminals.
The Ahus Hospital also has a wireless network in place, along with a comprehensive EMR with bedside patient terminals, voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) and 100 percent digitized medical imaging.
Duffy added: “At the time of this report, the new hospital facilities in both cities are both fully operational and are considered to be a great success by hospital staff and patients alike.
“The path toward the digital hospital is difficult–there is no single solution, no single starting point, and no definite endpoint. The future for St. Olavs and Ahus lies in their shared view that the development of a digital hospital is a journey, not a destination,” she concluded.