Digitalisation with strategy and partners
Ammerland-Klinik becomes a state-of-the-art healthcare provider with Dedalus HealthCare
Klinikzentrum Westerstede is pursuing a comprehensive digitalisation approach and is relying on solutions from Dedalus HealthCare. The focus is on a holistic strategy with a reduced number of interfaces and a standardised database that integrates all processes from digital documentation to communication with the medical service (MD).
Since July 2008, the Ammerland-Klinik and the Bundeswehrkrankenhaus (BWK) Westerstede have been working together to form the Klinikzentrum Westerstede. This civil-military cooperation model is unique in Germany. “We not only jointly operate the emergency room and the surgical intensive care unit, but also cooperate in non-medical areas such as catering, technical infrastructure and maintenance,” says Axel Weber, Managing Director of the Ammerland-Klinik, explaining the special form of cooperation.
The digitalisation of the company also picked up speed at the same time. The basis was and is the ORBIS hospital information system (HIS) from Dedalus HealthCare, which was introduced back in 1997. “Long before BWK moved onto the campus, we had already laid the foundations for the collaboration with the introduction of patient charts and electronic medication. Both facilities work as independent clients on a shared database, so that patient files are clearly separated. In the joint operating departments, we give the doctors and nursing staff access to all the necessary information via a sophisticated authorisation concept,” says Sven Walther, Deputy Head of the IT department at the Ammerland-Klinik, explaining the structure in Westerstede.
Seamless data flow without interfaces
Both organisations pursue a holistic system approach. If new IT systems are to be procured, Dedalus HealthCare is always the first point of contact. “This makes integration easier for us and ensures a seamless flow of information,” says Walther, citing two advantages of the chosen process. One example shows what it looks like when external systems must be integrated into the workflow. “We use modules from other providers in both endoscopy and birth documentation. As the quality assurance forms cannot simply be transferred, the quality management staff must always rework them manually. This is very time-consuming and harbours the risk of transmission errors,” says the deputy IT manager.