Southern starts search for digital infrastructure delivery partner

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Te Whatu Ora Health NZ has gone to market for a digital infrastructure delivery partner for the New Dunedin Hospital, with a contract worth in excess of $60 million.

The New Dunedin Hospital includes 421 beds and will be “state of the art, using digital infrastructure to manage patient flows and improve efficiency,” the Registration of Interest (ROI) says.

The ROI estimates the value of the hardware and services components for the outpatients building, due to open in 2025, to be approximately $25 million. The second stage is estimated at $35 million for the inpatient building, due for completion in 2029.

The delivery partner will procure, commission, install, integrate, manage and support all in-scope products for the hospital, as well as “establish and manage a prototype and staging lab to deliver a fully integrated digital environment across all ICT at the New Dunedin Hospital”.

The scope includes a patient engagement solution, electronic patient journey boards, digital wayfinding and digital signage, to allow patients to check-in electronically and provide them with directions.

Also, a real time location system to enable patient movement and the tracking of clinical equipment, and electronic bed cards to replace charts.

Support facilities, such as logistics and kitchen areas, are also part of the scope.

An overview from chief digital officer for Te Whatu Ora Southern District Patrick Ng, says the district’s digital transformation programme comprises of digital solutions and digital infrastructure.

“In the first instance, our digital solutions will be about readying our existing solutions to work in the new buildings, including developing our processes to become a paper lite hospital that is no longer reliant on paper medical charts as the competent medical record,” he says.

The district also envisages new digital solutions, such as a contemporary electronic health record with workflow, but will need to make a robust, national case for investment in these future transforming digital solutions.

“There are high expectations about being able to use the digital infrastructure design that we have created for future hospital buildings such as Nelson and Whangarei,” says Ng.

Tony Lloyd, programme director of the new hospital, says in a case study for the new Digital Strategy for Aotearoa that staff will have role-based access to medical information, enabling the patient experience to have greater continuity and be more personalised.

“We want the new hospital to make it easier for hospital staff to be even more patient-centric than they are now,” he says.

“This will involve better booking management systems, records management (including patients contributing to their own health records), being able to navigate hospitals better, wearable devices that enable both improved tracking of patient health and earlier departures (because the hospital continues monitoring patients at home).”

“The vision is for the new Dunedin hospital to become a blueprint for 5 more New Zealand hospital builds now in the pipeline.”

Shortlisted respondents to the ROI will be invited to participate in a closed RFP process with the contract expected to start in June 2023.

Budget 2022 allocated $225 million over ten years  to fund the digital transformation of the Southern region’s health system, with $155m available in the next four years.



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