New e-health tool take-up by Australian hospitals

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 17:58

IT Industry - Deals

Milliman Care Guidelines, a US provider of e-health tools for hospitals and health systems, is introducing its web-based and interactive clinical care guidelines into Australian hospitals.
 

Milliman says the hand-held and interactive device has proven very successful in the United States and in limited Australian trials in reducing important factors such as the length of patient stay.

The CareWebIQ software is designed to offer clinicians easy access to evidence-based best practice guidelines, real-time clinical data and real-time management reporting, and Milliman says a number of Australian hospital operators are already using the software with some ‘significant results’

Milliman’s senior VP for sales and marketing, Scott Harris, says the company is now seeing considerable interest from both the private and public sector in Australia, while currently in the United States the annually updated Care Guildelines support the care of one in three Americans through more than 1,000 healthcare clients, helping to improve patient outcomes through the targeting and reduction of inappropriate care. The guidelines identify gaps in care and provide reporting around why variances are occurring and how they can be reduced.

Harris says CareWebQI is a tool that assists healthcare professionals on the front line, and their patients, by describing specific, evidence-based care at the right time.
 
“The tool helps avoid delays in care, can reduce underuse, overuse and misuse of medical resources, provides planning tools to anticipate patient needs and includes patient education tools

“One of the key outcomes we have shown is that using these tools can appropriately shorten patient length of stay in hospital.  This not only improves the patient experience, but reduces the possibility of hospital acquired infections and can place the patient at a more suitable care setting.”