The door to the sickroom opens, the head physician, senior physician, assistant physicians and nursing staff enter. It’s time for the morning round. When doctors and nursing staff in the Protestant hospitals of Oberhausen (EKO) and Mülheim (EKM) sit down at a patient’s bedside, they do not have a thick paper file in their hands, but an iPad Mini. With the compact tablet, all information about the patient, their diagnosis and the prescribed therapies is within reach.
The attending physician documents the progress of wound healing after the caesarean section via voice message for the external documentation service and shows the new mother the healing process by means of photos. Just one click further, the physician can see what medication the patient is taking and adjusts the prescription for painkillers. The physician also sees the mother’s morning vitals and laboratory values on their tablet, because they are automatically transferred to the patient file. If the physician prescribes additional physiotherapy, the system directly notifies the hospital’s service department. The system can also inform the maternity unit and administration that the patient and her baby are leaving the hospital today and the case can be sent to billing.
When IT Manager Dr. Martin Kuhrau, walks through the maternity ward of the Oberhausen hospital and observes the doctors and nurses working with the iPads, he sees the fruits of a decade of his work. He pushed ahead with the digitalization of the two hospitals in the Ruhr area and created the technical framework conditions for the computer centre. In addition to the two clinics, he also looks after eleven other facilities, including three senior citizens’ homes, a hospice and outpatient palliative care. The ATEGRIS Group has around 3,000 employees. The decision to implement iMedOne, a modern hospital infomation system (HIS) as the central core for clinical care, was made long before Dr. Kuhrau’s time. The changeover took place successively. “Establishing a system the size of ATEGRIS takes a long time. The modular structure of the Telekom solution is a great advantage here. We were able to introduce iMedOne department by department and always got support from Telekom when needed,” says IT manager Kuhrau.
Digital medical records, easy communication between specialists and data as well as information are now available anytime and anywhere. With its modern HIS, ATEGRIS is one of the digital pioneers in the industry and has just been named Germany’s Digital Champion by Focus Money. DEUTSCHLAND TEST, a brand of the business magazine, conducted the survey, scientifically accompanied by the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI). The organization parsed approximately 10,000 of Germany’s largest companies from more than 70 industries in order to determine Digital Champions. “This title confirms that we are on the right track. And our strategy will continue in the long term,” attests ATEGRIS CEO Martin Große-Kracht. “Digitalization has been firmly anchored in our company for the past 15 years.”
In order to take all real requirements and expectations into account during the redesign, ATEGRIS proved itself by forming a project team during phase one. Doctors, therapists and nursing staff were also involved depending on the application. The next step was to restructure the processes in the hospital in such a way that they can best be mapped into the system. Only once department after department had started pilot operation could the final rollout for the entire facility take place. ATEGRIS accompanied the change in a communicative manner throughout. Accordingly, the IT department, the organisational development department and selected employees in each department investigated.
“It is essential to make the benefits of a good HIS very visible in the daily work with patients.”
how best to train all colleagues. The idea was to involve opinion leaders in a targeted manner and thus take into account both the expectations and the needs of the employees. “We are aware of the fact that colleagues in the medical field do not wish to work with computers but want to care for and heal patients. Therefore, it is essential to make the benefits of a good HIS very visible in the daily work with patients,” Dr. Kuhrau affirms. “Our goal was to introduce the HIS right down to the last department. With iMedOne Mobile, medical staff now have direct access to the system and the associated subsystems at the patient’s bedside.”
The IT department is constantly reviewing how its 2,000 or so colleagues are using and evaluating iMedOne, as well as reviewing what could be improved. The modern application also serves as a good argument for recruiting new employees. The competition from hospitals in the Ruhr area is fierce. This makes a modern HIS an indispensable basis for competent, contemporary patient care and economic stability. “Young colleagues are generally very open to IT support. Older colleagues tend to be critical. But everyone agrees that the administrative load has increased in recent years, leaving too little time for patients. Here, we want to be a constant contributor, and the title of Digital Champion is a nice confirmation that we are on the right track,” Dr. Martin Kuhrau is pleased to report.
Contact: Andre.Elsenbruch@telekom-healthcare.com
More Information: www.ategris.de (in German)
More Information: www.telekom-healthcare.com
