Private hospital group improves admin systems

Dataweave, an IT consultancy which specialises in enterprise applications and Oracle solutions, has completed a major upgrade of key database and enterprise application software for Healthe Care. In addition, Dataweave has also been appointed to provide ongoing outsourced administration and support for Healthe Care’s databases and other Oracle business applications.

Healthe Care is the largest privately owned network of private hospitals in Australia, delivering premium care to clients and patients through specialist services, facilities and medical technology. The group employs over 2500 people across a portfolio of 12 hospitals throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

In February 2010, Healthe Care decided to strategically outsource segments of its IT administration and support. Previously, the organisation had relied on an in-house IT team supplemented by a pool of individual contractors and corporate suppliers. In recent years, the business has expanded rapidly, leading to the need to upgrade key business applications and critical database platforms.

Phillip Hurley, Chief Information Officer for Healthe Care, commented, “Our organisation is entirely focused on delivering the best possible medical care. We use sophisticated business applications to manage and support our network of hospitals in the delivery of care to patients. We are a healthcare provider, not a specialist IT operation. We increasingly found it difficult to justify growing and retaining an in-house team of technology specialists, so we decided to outsource specific areas of our IT administration and support to reduce risk, and allow us to access a broader range of technical skills.”

Dataweave was chosen to provide outsourced IT support and day-to-day administration of Healthe Care’s critical Oracle E-Business Suite application and Oracle database systems. Dataweave provides on-demand support for these critical systems, giving Healthe Care the flexibility to quickly resource its changing needs, freeing up its in-house team to focus on forward-looking projects.

To improve the efficiency of patient admission and to simplify invoicing, Healthe Care commenced an iSoft webPAS deployment in 2010. This new major application runs on an Oracle database, with Dataweave providing support and ongoing maintenance.

In order to further streamline operations and improve visibility of financials, Dataweave was commissioned to integrate the iSoft WebPAS application with Oracle E-Business Suite. The integration will provide the Healthe Care finance team with improved visibility of customer invoicing, reducing the amount of time it takes to produce accurate financial reports.

Hurley continued, “Our business is growing rapidly, so flexibility is one of our biggest requirements. We chose to partner with Dataweave because of its professional and pragmatic approach, its ability to deliver 24/7 application support, and the breadth of its technical skills. The capabilities and services that Dataweave brings to the table are a significant help to our IT team, making it possible for us to deliver improved IT services to our network of hospitals.”