CIO Interview: Delivering on diverse fronts

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Picture: Waikato DHB chief information officer Geoff King

Geoff King, Waikato DHB CIO

Waikato DHB chief information officer Geoff King outlines some of the challenges facing a large, diverse region, as well as progress made and plans for the future.

The Waikato District has a vibrant, diverse and growing population of 390,000 and covers more than 21,000 km². It stretches from northern Coromandel to close to Mt Ruapehu in the south, and from Raglan on the west coast to Waihi on the east. Waikato DHB operates five hospitals and three continuing care facilities and is supported by three PHOs.

The principal iwi in the Waikato DHB district are Hauraki, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa and Waikato. Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Whanganui iwi groups also reside within the district, and a significant number of Māori living here affiliate to iwi outside the district.

There are 10 territorial local authorities within Waikato DHB boundaries – Hamilton City, Hauraki, Matamata-Piako, Otorohanga, (part of) Ruapehu, South Waikato, Thames-Coromandel, Waikato, Waipa and Waitomo.

Our vision and mission were updated in 2017 to “Healthy People. Excellent Care” and “Enable us all to manage our health and wellbeing. Provide excellent care through smarter, innovative delivery”.

These are supported by six key strategic imperatives:

• health equity for high need populations/oranga
• safe, quality health services for all/haumaru
• people-centred services/manaaki
• effective and efficient care and services/ratonga a iwi
• a centre of excellence in learning, training, research and innovation/pae taumata
• productive partnerships/whanaketanga.

Focusing investment

Waikato DHB is taking a portfolio approach, led by its executive leadership team and financial monitoring committee, balancing the need for investment with the significant affordability constraints.

While the need to invest in addressing the deferred maintenance position and innovation and enhancements (i.e., mobility, integration, eHealth, tele/virtual health and regional and national initiatives) are well understood, the affordability constraints have resulted in a focusing of investment.

The recognised affordability constraints across the health sector and the need to live within our means result in a balancing of ‘saving our way out of a deficit’ with ‘investing our way out of the deficit’, coupled with maintaining a robust and resilient technology environment and delivery of the innovation and enhancements required.

To this end the DHB has maintained a substantial IS investment roadmap with circa 90 projects in delivery at any point in time.

Integrating systems

Over the past 12 months, the DHB built on its investment, integrating with our primary and community partners by providing access to our Clinical Workstation to them through the combination of the Web Portal and direct, one-click integration with the Indici & MedTech patient management solutions and tablet version.

Across the district there are more than 1300 primary and community partners with access, covering a diverse group of providers, including GP practices, NGOs, community providers, private sector providers, emergency care and national providers. In the coming months this solution will be expanded to include radiology.

Providing mobile solutions

The need to support an increasing mobile workforce is seen as a priority and the DHB is progressing its multi-year investment building out the underpinning infrastructure, devices and mobile solutions, including applications.

Mobile access to Clinical Workstation and Results has been deployed, and later this year the eOrders solution for Lab & Rad, Anywhere Viewer for Radiology images, office productivity tools, clinical imaging, mobile file store access and improved security (aligning to HISO obligations) will be delivered.

The DHB also recognises the increasing mobility of our patients and the need of the rural population to access services remotely. To this end, the DHB continues to grow its telehealth service, both site to site between rural and tertiary centre, and with Cisco jabber technology allowing consultations into an environment of the patient’s choice.

Delivering locally

The DHB is focused on delivery to local priorities and on maintaining an affordable level of investment aligned to regional and national priorities.

Regional initiatives make up a substantial portion of the DHB’s IS investment, the biggest investment being the transition from our local Clinical Workstation to the regional Midland Clinical Portal.

Connecting nationally

Investment in initiatives delivering to national priorities continues to be a high priority for the DHB. The transition from the outsourced data centre to the All of Government data centre is nearing completion and the DHB has gone live on the National Oracle System (NoS).

The recent All of Government contract with Microsoft provides a significant opportunity for the health sector, including vendors, to invest to transition in a relatively short period of time, resulting in a step change in the adoption of cloud technologies, the tools provided to healthcare providers and, ultimately, the way that healthcare is provided to our patients.

Reviewing services

In 2018, Waikato DHB commenced a review, engaging with our communities and health providers, of our Health System Plan. The Health System Plan will focus the health sector on what is needed to support people to improve their health and well-being, make services easier to use and improve the way services are provided over the next 10 years. It is a plan for everyone in the Waikato, not just for the DHB.  

An outcome of the establishment of the Health System Plan will be an update to the IS Services plan, which delivers to the priorities.

Read more CIO Interviews

Darren Manley: CIO Interview: The key to health system transformation – good old-fashioned teamwork

Mike Collins: CIO Interview: Culture is key to digital transformation

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