HP secures Oz hospital deal

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has signed a technology services deal to design, build and maintain most of the digital infrastructure for South Australia's new $2.2 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital, reports The Australian.

The project involves a landmark private-public sector collaboration that will see the South Australia Health Partnership (SAHP) consortium build the hospital, which is due to open in 2016, on a greenfields site in Adelaide's West End.

The SAHP consortium will then take on an operational role, providing a range of non-clinical services, and maintaining the facility for the next 30 years.

The hospital is the first facility to use version 2.0 of the HP Digital Hospital Solution as its technology foundation, writes The Wall Street Journal.

Managed by HP, this cohesive set of technologies and services replaces single-function systems with a comprehensive solution that aligns technology with operational and patient priorities.

According to iTWire, HP South Pacific VP for enterprise services, Alan Bennett, said the deployment of HP technologies and services would lower maintenance and operational costs for the state government.

“With the cost of healthcare and patient numbers on the rise worldwide, South Australia is getting ahead of the dire need for better care, delivered more efficiently, to keep up with the growing demand from its citizens,” he said.

HP will deploy its converged infrastructure services, which merge computers, storage and networks with services, and manage them all through a single management platform.

This solution will allow integration of the hospital's in-building systems with the South Australia government's enterprise-level health patient admission and medical records applications.