IT and the Healers

Healthcare facilities around the world are using IT to improve their surgery

departments in terms of patient care as well as financial performance. When

Atlanta-based Surgical Information Systems (SIS) began development of an

information system in 1996, there werent too many fully integrated systems for

surgical operating room environments. Hence there was a need to redefine the

historical meaning of an information system for the operating room. To this end,

SIS made the first moves towards developing a new paradigm that included full

nursing record-keeping functionality for pre-operation, intra-operation,

post-operation, scheduling, case review and financial analysis. Shrikanth G

spoke to Drew Cobb—vice president, systems development at Surgical Information

Systems and director of SIS Software in India. Excerpts…

How

do you characterize the US healthcare space and where does your solution fit in

the scheme of things?



On a daily-basis, hospitals across the US are faced with not only regulatory

and accreditation issues, but also are harried by a nation-wide nursing shortage

and financial challenges. The surgery department of an acute care hospital

generates approximately 68% of that hospital’s revenue, making it the prime

source of income. This makes the surgery department in need of being managed

well through the use of information management systems.

In what way SIS solution is different from other healthcare solutions?



Our only business is surgery information systems. Our purpose is to enhance

the quality and delivery of surgical services through IT. This dedication allows

for quick response to changing information requirements of the surgical

departments. We were the first vendor to market a Windows-based surgery

information system; the first to develop a workflow communications product

integrated with a surgery information system; and the first to offer an

Internet-based surgical information product to the health- care industry.

How will hospitals benefit from your solution?



Hospitals that implement our solution see improvement in their surgery

department in the areas of patient care and financial performance. They see a

significant decrease in dropped charges, and see a dramatic increase in billable

revenues. Other key issues in US hospitals are patient safety and high occurence

of medical errors. Causes of this issue point to a general lack of automation,

duplication of effort, a dependence on manual documentation, minimal use of

decision support capabilities, and a lack of timely access to data and

information at the point of care. Our technology can greatly contribute to

improved patient care in several ways, including the availability of real-time

knowledge, the elimination of hand-written patient records, and the reduction of

non-clinical time.

What is your mandate in India?



We chose India as our product development center due to its large pool of

available technical manpower. This skilled workforce enables us to shorten our

development time, enhance our product functionalities, and improve quality

assurance, as well as continue with our various research activities. Because of

our India development center, we are able to work round-the-clock on software

development and testing. SIS India’s main contribution has been in the areas

of software development and quality assurance. The India team has also made it

possible for SIS to have software enhancements and corrections much more quickly

than ever before. SIS India currently has 125 associates and we intend to ramp

it up to around 170 employees in the near future.

Globally, where do you think the healthcare vertical is heading?



Healthcare is primarily driven by national and local requirements, such as

reimbursement requirements, clinical practices, and even language. Because of

these national/local requirements, it can be difficult for companies to focus on

wide geographic areas and satisfy all of their health care requirements.

Healthcare information systems competitors are springing up in countries or

groups of countries that share common reimbursement and language requirements.

Shrikanth G in Chennai