Customers

Sydney West Area Health Service

"Business Objects reports bring to life extremely detailed and disparate information and display it in a way that isn't daunting for our hospital staff."

Trevor McKinnon
Director Performance
Monitoring & Reporting Unit of SWAHS

Challenge

In January 2005 Western Sydney and Wentworth Area Health Services amalgamated to form what is now known as Sydney West Area Health Service (SWAHS). SWAHS spans 8,779 kilometres and covers nine local government areas including, Auburn, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Lithgow, Penrith and Parramatta, this constitutes one of the largest areas within New South Wales Health.

With the population of the area currently at more than 1.1 million and expected to exceed 1.3 million by 2021, servicing the growing health needs of an ageing population is a priority for the organisation. The challenges to SWAHS of increasing service demand, escalating costs and workforce shortages are not new to health, but the ability to streamline processes with technology is an asset that is only just being realised and not yet utilised to its full potential.

The investment and implementation of iHealth, an integrated approach to centralise and streamline disjointed systems and processes exemplifies New South Wales Health's focus on patient safety and quality.

With an approximate budget of $1.5 billion and 17,000 employees, SWAHS needed to make sure the whole workforce including all its managers are armed with timely and trusted information to enable quick and knowledgeable decision making.

Masses of data, created from millions of admissions and outpatient services adds to the general operation and administration records of such a large organisation. Making sense of this data, which resides in disparate, non-integrated systems is one of the critical challenges that healthcare organisations face.

Approach

Since becoming a Business Objects customer in 2002 as NSW Health, executives of the newly formed SWAHS realised the value of utilising information to effectively manage and transform the organisation. SWAHS provided visibility to all its employees on the performance of hospitals, operational units and key metrics on patient treatment by making reports available on the intranet. Employees were able to assess historical, current and targeted performance. Sensitive patient, HR or financial data reports are provided to users through Business Objects secure web portal.

Dashboards were also implemented to demonstrate, in a visual and interactive manner, the performance of specific areas within the organisation. Users can now easily recognise trends and identify areas which are running well and areas which need attention.

Results

By collating and amalgamating disparate sources of information, SWAHS has created a single version of the truth for their workforce. Whether it is a nurse or cluster manager, any employee can access the information that they need through the intranet.

"Three times a week the cluster managers meet to review their unit's performance; they now use the dashboard reports, which visualise critical data and highlight KPIs such as off-stretcher time and patient waiting time, to set the agenda for meetings. These reports are fundamental to these meetings, to the organisation in fact," said Trevor McKinnon, Director Performance, Monitoring & Reporting Unit of SWAHS.

Using Business Objects' tools that present information in ways that are easy to use and understand meant SWAHS could provide information to a section of its workforce who were not technically skilled, including experienced nurses who were accustomed to handwritten patient records and reports.

"Our clinical staff are experts in their medical field but not information technology, they aren't expected to be. Business Objects reports bring to life extremely detailed and disparate information and display it in a user friendly way that isn't daunting for our hospital staff," explained McKinnon.

The Ward and Nursing Display tool (WAND) and Bed Board developed using Business Objects have replaced the traditional whiteboards which are manual and subject to human error. These new tools provide nurses and clinicians at the coalface with accurate, real-time knowledge of the patient journey ensuring staff are aware of any delays in the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

As the organisation is spread across such vast distances, SWAHS was challenged by the need to educate and train thousands of remote users in the capabilities and use of the reporting tools. To address this Business Objects Knowledge Accelerator has been deployed by SWAHS to provide customised online training and support to remote users. This has resulted in increased user adoption and satisfaction while reducing training, support and travel costs.

"We are now looking at maximising the benefits of BI to make reports available to the executives on their BlackBerry devices. We need to arm our managers with the latest and best knowledge. On any given day they may travel from Auburn to Lithgow, they need to be across what is happening in their area at all times," said McKinnon.

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