Press Releases
InterSystems’ Partner Medical Systems Design Develops
Web based Inventory Automation for National Day Surgery - Sydney in 3 Months
InterSystems’ Zen Rapid Web Development Framework and Ensemble Rapid Integration Platform Used to Create an Integrated Suite of Patient-Centric Applications
Sydney, Aust. January 29, 2008 InterSystems Corporation today announced that its Australian partner Medical Systems Design has re-developed the Patient-centric Inventory Automation module for its SurgiDat® software application suite to a Web-based platform. The module was redeveloped in just three months using the Zen™ rapid Web development framework within InterSystems Caché® and successfully deployed and integrated at National Day Surgery - Sydney to create an integrated suite of patient-centric applications. The Zen platform now allows for a more robust and exhaustive functionality set for Medical Systems Design clients.
SurgiDat is based on the Caché® high performance object database and InterSystems Ensemble® rapid integration platform from InterSystems. Using Zen, a technology included in the latest version of Caché for building rich platform-independent Web applications faster than ever before, Medical Systems Design has rapidly re-engineered SurgiDat as a Web-based application.
With Zen, Medical Systems Design no longer needs to use another development environment to create the user interface for SurgiDat, according to Alex Anderson, Development Manager for MS Design. “Typically you would be using Visual Basic or Java or ASP or something else for the front end. We are not using anything else now. Zen has everything we need.”
As a result, the re-development of the SurgiDat Web-based Inventory Automation module took just three months. “Without Zen, SurgiDat Inventory Automation would have taken at least 12 months to re-develop,” says Anderson. “Zen delivers the sort of rapid Web development environment we require to move away from a thick client on the desktop to a very, very thin client.”
These time savings mean that Medical Systems Design can easily create new Web-based modules for its SurgiDat suite that meet new customers’ requirements and are also easy to deploy, says Anderson. “Users just point their browser to a Web page and the whole application runs with nothing else resident on the PC.”
National Day Surgery - Sydney, one of the newest surgical facilities in NSW, has adopted the Web-based SurgiDat Inventory Automation module for all stock management, billable items and inventory quality control. This extends its previous deployment of SurgiDat which efficiently managed its surgical instruments. It is a regulatory requirement that medical practitioners be able to verify that all instruments have been correctly sterilised and maintained in an appropriate state before a medical procedure.
Because SurgiDat is built on the Ensemble rapid integration platform, it was easily integrated with National Day Surgery - Sydney’s existing patient administration system and theatre booking system. This has created an entire integrated suite of applications without having to replace any earlier software investments. It also allows National Day Surgery - Sydney to take a patient-centric view of its operations, with benefits to patients and the business.
“We originally chose SurgiDat because it takes us over and above the current health department standard, tracking instruments right down to the patient level,” says Nancy Broer, Director of Nursing for National Day Surgery - Sydney. “With SurgiDat we know, for example, exactly which cataract tray was used on a patient that may have had an infection. With CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob [Mad Cow] Disease) that is very important.”
SurgiDat Inventory Automation extends these compliance benefits to improve the overall efficiency of National Day Surgery - Sydney’s inventory management. It ensures that the surgical facility always has sufficient inventory on hand, without carrying excess stock, and that it can track the use and cost of consumables by patient and procedure.
SurgiDat’s patient-centric view and integration capabilities improve efficiency in preparing for surgery, something that improves the experience of day surgery for patients.
“Being linked to the patient you can get a print-out of the equipment and consumables you need on a set up and it goes straight onto the patient notes. Nurses do not have to waste time preparing for the procedure,” says Ms Broer. “SurgiDat also provides costings for each patient and for each procedure and that is linked in with our patient administration system as well.”
SurgiDat delivers labour savings for the day surgery’s 30 nursing staff. “We have a computer in every theatre and use handheld scanners in stockrooms to check how much is on the shelf,” says Ms Broer. Placing monthly orders for inventory has become a half-hour job instead of a half-day job. The time savings on quarterly stocktakes are even more substantial. “Instead of taking three to four staff members two to three days, SurgiDat allows one staff member to complete the task in one day.”
About Medical Systems Design
Medical Systems Design is based in Sydney, Australia. In 2002 the company created the SurgiDat® family of healthcare management solutions to deliver integrated clinical data collection and surgical inventory management for the high production healthcare environment. Collecting business intelligence data in real time, SurgiDat integrates with enterprise financial management and supply chain/logistics applications to provide an instantaneous, automated record of the complete activities within a department, or even across an entire group of healthcare facilities.
Within Australia the company’s customers include Mater Misericordiae Health Services Brisbane (a group of seven Public and Private hospitals), The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Orange and Bathurst Hospitals, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Adelaide, and Calvary Health Care Adelaide.
For more information please visit www.surgidat.com
About InterSystems
InterSystems Corporation is a global software technology leader 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.
For more information please visit InterSystems.com
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Editorial Contact
David Sanday
Bowes Communications
02 9387 2333
david.sanday@bowespr.com
