Millions of data items transferred during Auckland PAS go-live

NEWS - eHealthNews editor Rebecca McBeth

More than 20 million data items were transferred from old systems to the new during the go-live of a patient administration system (PAS) at Health NZ Te Toka Tumai Auckland on October 31.

Tū Pono Āroha replaces three legacy systems that were between 20-29 years-old, with a single, integrated platform called TrakCare from InterSystems.

Project director Nick Lanigan says data migration was one of the most challenging aspects of the go-live. 

“We had to bring over all our patient records, future outpatient bookings, planned surgeries, and waiting lists,” he tells eHealthNews. 

More than 20 million data items were transferred, from structured records to unstructured and free text entries. 

A dedicated team worked for months on this huge task and they had a methodical approach to catch up on data points that required further “cleaning” to meet the new system’s requirements, Lanigan says.

Greg Williams, project SRO, says the PAS interfaces with more than 60 other systems and go-live was a12-14 hour process which involved transferring millions of data items.

He says Tū Pono Āroha is already enhancing patient care by centralising and standardising information in a single system meaning hospital staff can see a patient’s status and care details in real-time.

Structured data allows for accurate reporting on patient flows, bed capacity, and waiting times and over time they can leverage these insights for better resource allocation and patient flow management. 

Williams says the governance structure integrated key senior people from both operational and technical backgrounds from the very inception of the project. 

“These are not just IT projects, they are organisational change projects and we have had a shared feeling of ownership to deliver this from the start,” he says.

Anecdotal feedback from staff so far has been broadly positive.

“It is a huge change for people who are learning to do their day jobs differently because they are using different tools,” Williams says.

“The hard work starts now, making sure we are supporting people so that the tool set makes it easier for them to do their jobs.”

Lanigan says the hospital deployed about 20-30 ‘floor walkers’ on launch day, backed by 70 additional support staff, to help with technical issues and questions from clinical staff. 

There are also around 700 ‘super users’ who help their colleagues adapt to the new way of working and InterSystems had a strong presence on the ground.

He says the project team has worked in partnership with InterSystems from day one and they flew in a number of people, along with having people on the ground to help.

Hear Jen Chesbrough and Marina Parata from Health NZ Te Toka Tumai speak about how the new PAS is driving equity during their presentation on December 4 at Digital Health Week 2024 in Hamilton. See the programme online.

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