"This is a strategic investment and we are expecting to get great value out of it," said Ainsley Pollock, general manager - solutions.

"HealthShare will help us automate our processes right across the enterprise. The business will benefit with workflow improvements and reduced handling of data, and patients will benefit from more accurate service delivery at a lower cost."

He explained that the benefits will be seen in the back office (eg, by reducing reporting tasks from hours to minutes) and on the front line (eg, by connecting nurses with patient data).

The adoption of HealthShare helps ready the organisation for the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) and other initiatives such as the Human Services Directory and the Chronic Disease Medication Systems Network.

The initial rollout will cover rostering, client management, HL7 clinical messaging, human resources, and finance, with others planned for future deployment.

Mr Pollock explained that RDNS needs to prepare to cope with the expected growth in the number of elderly people requiring home care.

"There is growing recognition that current healthcare delivery models are in need of transformation and it is precisely the sort of innovative solutions RDNS is deploying with HealthShare that are vital in achieving that objective," said Steve Garrington, group commercial director at InterSystems.