Hospital software to streamline 'Obamacare'
Health & Medical
A HEALTH platform designed to help hospitals reach Obamacare standards is preparing to launch in the United States
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Health informatics company Alcidion Pty Ltd has developed an integrative software system in Adelaide, South Australia, to streamline care and reduce harm.
According to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), medical errors and hospital inefficiencies are the third leading cause of death in the United States.
These can range from delayed tests to incorrect treatments such as nitrous oxide delivery instead of oxygen.
In 2010, the Obama administration introduced the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which required hospitals to begin the implementation of healthcare information technology to help avoid errors.
Hospitals that fail to comply with the Act, dubbed Obamacare, risk cuts to their Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements.
Alcidion’s Miya platform was created to address these issues and has successfully been deployed in 11 hospitals across Australia with positive results.
Executive Vice President Nathan Buzza said about 40 per cent of all tests ordered by doctors were not reviewed by anyone and 18 per cent of those tests could contain vital information.
“Miya pulls all of the disparate patient data across multiple systems into a single platform,” Buzza said.
“It eliminates a lot of the deficiencies like trying to chase different staff around, the need for couriers, manually checking inboxes or pigeon holes.
“The Alcidion solution interfaces directly into the pathology department, imaging platforms, ordering platforms and it consolidates that information, constructing an Electronic Medical Record (EMR).”
Next week Buzza will present at the 2016 TechKnow Invest Roadshow, Australasia’s premier investor-focused technology event.
The event is hoped to build momentum for the Miya program ahead of its launch in the United States in the second half of 2017.
Buzza said the product was well suited to the US market because it was fully compliant with the Obamacare regulations that stipulate the need for a nationwide EMR adoption model.
“About 95 per cent of hospitals in the United States have not integrated a fully automated system and the figures are similar in Australia,” he said.
The Miya program targets key problems experienced by Emergency Rooms, Inpatient Services and Outpatient Departments.
The system highlights risks based on an EMR and provides best practice guidance for common problems. It can also detect and manage high-risk laboratory results that arrive after the patient has been discharged.
Buzza said a physician could access an EMR immediately through a computer or mobile device once it had been constructed.
He said physicians would have a list of patients they were dealing with as well as test results and relevant information from all the departments any patient had been through.
The platform processes the information, compares it to standard guidelines and then lists recommended tests depending on the situation.
It also tracks patient flow to inform physicians, nurses and allied health staff of each patient’s status in real time.
“At the triage level, staff would be able to know which patients were just waiting to be discharged and who needed the room next.
“Patients who are dealt with promptly have better clinical outcomes.”
The TechKnow conference tours Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane from October 18-21 and allows companies to showcase their products to more than 700 investors.
Buzza said it would be an important step for Alcidion as it was the first major event the company had been involved in since publicly listing earlier this year.
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