In line with Netcare's commitment to the highest quality patient care, the company has initiated a R100 million investment in an enterprise management system powered by the healthcare solution from business solutions giant, SAP.
The system will provide all caregivers at Netcare hospitals, Medicross clinics and the 911 call centre with an integrated view of all patients at all times. Netcare-affiliated doctors and their staff will be able to access the system on ward rounds, in the hospital, and from their own consulting rooms.
Netcare is the largest private, for profit, listed healthcare group in the world to use SAP for Healthcare to standardise operations across its multidisciplinary business units.
The group's interests include the Netcare Hospital Group, the Medicross Healthcare Group, Netcare 911, The Pharmacy and Netcare International.
Facilities include 62 hospitals, 56 medical and dental centres, 80 pharmacies, 36 administered practices, trauma and emergency services, and management services for pathology laboratories. Utilising the services of 2 486 medical specialists, 439 general practitioners and 153 dentists, the group addresses the primary and specialised healthcare needs of almost 5 million patients annually.
According to Dr Ian Kadish, Netcare executive director and executive co-sponsor of the project: "Information technology (IT) is fast becoming a critical enabler of optimised patient care and service. We therefore spent three years on an intensive investigation aimed at identifying the world's leading healthcare solution. As a result, we are confident that SAP for Healthcare will dramatically improve the quality and efficiency of care and service that we provide to our patients."
The new system will also help the company achieve its vision of becoming an integrated, global healthcare provider.
"SAP for Healthcare gives Netcare a platform for continuous growth," says Kris Tokarzewski, general manager, group IT. "It enables organic growth by improving cross-division collaboration and it facilitates growth by acquisition by allowing faster integration of acquired companies into the Netcare group. Also, by standardising and automating processes throughout the group, SAP's real-time platform reduces business process costs and timeframes. And it provides Netcare with greater agility, enabling the group to respond more quickly to a rapidly changing healthcare market."
Already begun, the implementation will be completed within the next two years.
"To mitigate the business disruption of deploying an enterprise-wide system, the project is split into two phases," Tokarzewski says. "Phase one covers deployment of an electronic patient record throughout the group along with core transactional processes such as patient, materials and financial management. Phase two will focus on clinical processes and human resources."
SAP Public Services' Louis Murray says: "It's not unusual for healthcare groups to use the basic enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities of SAP to beef up their back-office systems.
"But, Netcare is going a step further - using SAP for Healthcare's pre-packaged, industry-specific operational functionality to optimise its healthcare activities. And because the solution enables tight integration between healthcare and back-office functionality, Netcare's cost and efficiency payback will accordingly permeate every element of the group's activities - creating a much broader return on investment and far greater responsiveness to patients, third-party providers and the market in general.
"In other words, Netcare is moving into a league of its own - proving that by equipping yourself to take better care of patients, business partners and customers, you automatically take better care of your business."
SAP for Healthcare is designed to streamline and integrate all the processes in the core areas of admissions, discharging and transfer (ADT) of a patient. It also automates management of all aspects of electronic health records, billing rules and calculations, and drug management. Its stock management module is tailored to the very specific needs of clinics and hospitals.
Share