Central region shifts patient administration into the cloud

eHealthNews.nz: National Systems & Strategy

Central region shifts patient administration into the cloud

Monday, 28 August 2023

Share |

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

In the Central North Island MidCentral, Whanganui and Wairarapa, have moved their Patient Administration System (webPAS) into the cloud to improve availability, security and simplify the support model.

The move is part of a wider strategy for the health sector.

Te Whatu Ora interim central region data and digital lead Steve Miller says the shift is consistent with the national Hybrid Mutli-Cloud programme.

“Moving the common PAS to a fully vendor managed solution, allows our data and digital teams to focus on further standardising the system to support our hospital and specialist services colleagues in the delivery of care in the region,” he says.

Miller says webPAS is the main system for keeping records and by moving it to the cloud, it becomes easier to connect with other systems.

You’ve read this article for free, but good journalism takes time and resource to produce. Please consider supporting eHealthNews by becoming a member of HiNZ, for just $17 a month.

“This way, we can access the data faster and use it for better service planning, patient flow and equity initiatives,” he explains.

“Following a national approach overtime, we want to replace our old PAS business processes with newer and better products and platforms that use the cloud.”

An example is the region’s transfer of care project, which is using a new system for referrals, bookings and schedules.

“This system will let us see how much demand and capacity we have across different care settings. It will also help our people and whānau get better access to services by letting them book their own appointments,” Miller says.

Other parts of the Central region are using Dedalus’s WebPAS solution, but local deployments. Te Matau a Māui Hawke’s Bay is planning to move to the regional PAS solution next.

In the future, other webPAS sites will look to move to the platform.

“As we unlock the power of data and digital to support the health reforms, consolidating and standardising such solutions is an important shift we must collectively make to optimise our investment, and reduce complexity and system fragmentation” Miller says.

Byron Philips, Dedalus senior principal healthcare strategy, says the partnership with the Central Region is “strategic to both our respective goals not only regarding webPAS but our broader solution portfolio.

“Dedalus webPAS is one of several solutions from our strategic portfolio being provided under our public cloud delivered Application Managed Service. MedChart is also in transition to the same model,” he says.

“With over 250 facilities depending on webPAS throughout Australia and New Zealand, this accomplishment with Central Region is highly significant to many other customers needing to address similar challenges.”