image_pdfimage_print

Healthcare visionaries recognize that clinicians in hospitals are at a critical evolutionary juncture. Tactically, they can keep a patient alive as a result of on-hand state of the art technology and knowledge. Now, as reform forces more competitive hospital comparisons based on quality, they must cross the bridge to learn how to drive overall patient outcome improvement.

Software AG, an ally to quality, cost effectiveness and accessibility, is a process intelligence company providing tools to approach health care in a process-centric manner. They offer a non-disruptive business infrastructure that builds on the shared value among caregivers—to heal their patients and send them back home quickly.
 
Art Tolda, Director of Health Care North America, explained, “By refining the process of healthcare delivery, our software solutions can discover, document, monitor, and predict health delivery events and use that knowledge to prevent negative consequences based on a history of care.”
 
This process intelligence can be applied to ER patient and work flow, outpatient surgical procedures, patient fall risks or hospital acquired infections as easily as the government applies it to terrorist risks or business applies it to supply chain operations. Currently 73% of businesses and governments worldwide access some component of Software AG.
 
“Processes are at the core of almost every business function, whether you are managing customer calls, shipping packages, or performing surgery. It is a simple way to define and organize the core activities that enable your organization to function,” Tolda explained.
 
A look at a process-centric delivery of care often results in checklists, care plans and event triggers that facilitate clinicians, who are at the forefront of delivery, in their quest for quality in the care process.
 
According to James Crump, Director of Strategic Business Solutions, the foundation for process improvement lies in integration and automation. Unfortunately, up-to-date tools or technology abound in hospitals but are often disconnected or only partially connected to existing applications, thus working in a ‘boutique’ manner. Integrating all modules can be a time consuming and expensive activity for underfunded or undermanned IT departments. However, utilizing disconnected applications forces clinicians into a reactive mode and initiates much duplication of forensic efforts.
 
On the other hand, by assuming a process orientation, building the business infrastructure does not displace special niche applications but rather integrates and enables their use in a less burdensome manner across the hospital. The automation of process documentation and measurement avoids the people oriented drudgery of multiple transcription and data entry collection points which is prone to error. Automation allows for better use of people talents and skills, faster analysis of real-time events and input while ultimately providing a more reliable and defendable reporting system.
 
Automation and integration components of a process centric approach rigorously attack common obstacles of health care technology such as:
• Fragmented applications
• Islands of inaccessible data
• Paper and manual processes
• Lack of task assignments …
all of which is a source of major frustration for caregivers, patient dissatisfaction and a trough of potentially damaging protocols in today’s litigious environment.
 
Utilizing specific business process improvement software, hospitals can:
• Align all users and technology with a common shared vision … improved patient outcomes;
• Integrate existing silo applications to expand functionality and increase collaboration;
• Better employ professionals’ skills to provide front line impact;
• Trigger faster responses to symptoms;
• Understand, predict and prevent root causes of defects in the process;
• Enhance access to and usage of targeted applications across multiple disciplines;
• Define and implement specific roles and workflows to address the necessary tasks of the care plan.
 
Software AG is the global leader in Business Process Excellence with a 40 year track record of innovation. In an environment where expectations are higher and budgets are tighter, the company boasts a unique offering of the world’s only end-to-end—and easiest to use—business process management (BPM) solutions, with the lowest total cost of ownership. They provide a portfolio for: process strategy, design, integration and control; service oriented architecture (SOA)-based integration and data management; process-driven SAP implementation; and strategic process consulting and services. The comprehensive software and services solutions allow companies to strategically achieve their business results faster.