Press Releases
65% of Health Organisations Say Lack of Integration Is Holding Back Electronic Patient Records: InterSystems Asia-Pac Survey
Most Valued Features Of EPR Systems Are Built-In Information Integration, Easy Web Access And Easy Configurability To Requirements
Sydney, Aust. July 22, 2008 InterSystems today announced the results of its InterSystems Asia-Pacific Electronic Patient Record Survey 2008, finding that 65% of surveyed organisations say new systems that don’t integrate with existing systems are limiting the successful adoption of Electronic Patient Record systems.
Electronic Patient Records (EPR) enable the user to view comprehensive patient data integrated from multiple sources within an organisation. EPR systems co-ordinate the storage and retrieval of individual medical records with the aid of computers and are often offered as part of a clinical or patient administration software package. A variety of types of healthcare-related information may be stored and accessed in this way.
The InterSystems Asia-Pacific Electronic Patient Record Survey 2008 found that:
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87% of respondents expect Electronic Patient Records to deliver better health outcomes and 73% expect them to increase productivity and efficiency. |
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Lack of funding is a major barrier to deploying Electronic Patient Records at 52% of surveyed organisations, with privacy and security reasons a barrier for 50% of respondents. |
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While 63% of organisations have deployed some sort of Electronic Patient Record system, significant barriers still exist to achieving an enterprise-wide Electronic Patient Record. |
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The top factors limiting the successful adoption of EPR systems are: new systems that don’t integrate with existing systems (selected by 65% of respondents) and lack of flexibility (selected by 48% or respondents). |
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The top three most valued features of Electronic Patient Record systems are: built-in information integration capabilities (selected by 65% of respondents), easy accessibility via the Web (selected by 62% of respondents), and easy configurability to requirements without customisation (selected by 62% of respondents). |
Two-thirds (65%) of respondents complain that new systems don’t integrate with existing systems, making the job of implementing an organisation-wide EPR difficult. It is not surprising that built-in integration capabilities was chosen as the most valuable feature in an EPR system (selected by 65% of respondents).
The ability to be easily accessed via the Web was second on the EPR feature priority list, chosen by 62% of respondents. This is not a feature of many of the older EPR systems which many of the surveyed organisations have deployed.
Flexibility and ease of configuration were also highly valued by a majority of respondents. This included the ability to be easily configured to requirements without customisation (62%), flexibility in adapting to changing requirements (60%), and flexible design of screens, formatting of reports and results viewing (60%).
“When it comes to information technology, most healthcare organisations face hurdles connecting different sources of information,” said Kerry Stratton, Global Director for Healthcare, InterSystems. “They know that if they could create a connected healthcare environment they could provide better care at a lower cost. If every clinician had immediate electronic access to a patient's known allergies and current medications, for example, the process of prescribing medications would be safer for patients and more efficient for clinicians.
“In almost every healthcare organisation, there are silos of information,” added Stratton. “In many cases, the information required to improve patient care and lower costs already exists. But often it is held within a system that is only readily available to a small subset of clinicians or administrators. The challenge is to share access to this information – with appropriate patient consent – to drive better healthcare outcomes and efficiencies and reduce wastage.”
InterSystems develops and markets innovative software for connected healthcare. Its product line includes the InterSystems CACHÉ® high-performance object database, the InterSystems Ensemble® rapid integration platform, the InterSystems HealthShare™ platform for regional and national Electronic Patient Records and the InterSystems TrakCare™ advanced Web-centric healthcare information system.
InterSystems TrakCare is an advanced Web-based healthcare information system that rapidly delivers patient-centric data and Electronic Patient Record (EPR) benefits. In addition to providing a complete enterprise-wide clinical and administrative solution, TrakCare seamlessly integrates with information from legacy systems and multi-vendor solutions.
About The Survey
Looking to better understand the challenges Asia-Pacific healthcare organisations face when implementing and integrating Electronic Patient Records, InterSystems conducted a survey of 52 healthcare IT professionals at HIMSS AsiaPac 2008. The Conference and Exhibition, held in Hong Kong from 21st – 23rd May 2008, was organised by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
Respondents represented a cross-section of healthcare organisations, with the majority from private (27%) or public hospitals (25%). Government organisations (21%) and general or specialist medical practices (13%) were also well represented.
About InterSystems
InterSystems Corporation is a global software product company with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and offices in 22 countries. InterSystems provides innovative products that enable fast development, deployment, and integration of enterprise-class applications. InterSystems CACHÉ® is a high performance object database that makes applications faster and more scalable. InterSystems Ensemble® is a rapid integration platform that enriches applications with new functionality, and makes them connectable. InterSystems HealthShare™ is a platform that leverages existing healthcare applications to rapidly create regional or national electronic health records. InterSystems TrakCare™ is an advanced Web-based healthcare information system that is installed in leading hospitals in 25 countries.
For more information please visit InterSystems.com
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Editorial Contact
David Sanday
Bowes Communications
02 9387 2333
david.sanday@bowespr.com
