Manukau makes its Objective

August 13, 2009:Objective's enterprise content management (ECM) solution has been implemented by Counties Manukau District Health Board (CMDHB) to support health services to the New Zealand community.

CMDHB is responsible for the funding of health and disability services and for the provision of hospital and health related services for the people of Counties Manukau district.

The highest priority of CMDHB staff is patient care. With over 30,000 electronic documents in a legacy system that could no longer supportfurther growth, information was being stored in multiple shared drives with no version control. Creating and keeping corporate information and records was a low priority for busy staff members focused on patient care.

To mitigate risk of losing crucial information and to promote better information management practices across the organisation, CMDHB sought an easy-to-use solution that would provide improved support to staff in their day-to-day treatment of patients.

Objective will deliver an enterprise-wide solution to underpin CMDHB’s key business processes, improve efficiency and support legislative compliance with the Public Records Act 2005.The first phase of the project has been deployed to users focused on management of Policy Procedure and Guidelines.“The Policy Procedure and Guidelines are our most business critical documents. They dictate how our business is run and are used by all staff24 x 7,” said Ms Jyoti Chopra, Corporate Records Manager, Counties Manukau District Health Board.

“If a child comes into the emergency department with asthma at 2am, a nurse needs immediate access to the most up-to-date guidelines on treating asthma. It is time critical that they have access to reliable, accurate information.”

CMDHB selected Objective to reduce the loss of corporate information; provide version control to improve approval processes; automate review and approval stages before publishing policies; improve search capabilities for information for staff; promote a knowledge sharing and information management culture across the business; reduce liability through improved security of information.Objective will provide a single repository for the management of the whole information lifecycle. In particular, it will be used for the rigorous versioning and approval processes associated with Policy Procedure and Guidelines.

As per the guidelines, policy documents have a strict approval process that is reviewed every two years under the rules governed by the Ministry of Health. Once the review period ends, it begins again. Over 600 people in the organisation have responsibilities to review and comment on policy updates.“Currently without an automated system, we are manually trying to manage the review and approval system. This is not sustainable as a manual process is incredibly labour intensive lending itself to a high margin for error,” said Ms Chopra.

Using Objective, policy reviews and approvals will be processed electronically, sent to single or multiple authorities and reviewed, approved and stored in a single streamlined process.This one process improvement alone will produce multiple benefits for the organisation, such as saving hours of time; reducing the number of people handling paperwork; reducing the risk of publishing critical documents that have not followed the appropriate approval process; enhancing service levels to the community through faster through-put and improved access to information.

“Using version control and audit trails means we will have electronic proof of our decision-making process. This is business critical for our organisation,” said Ms Chopra.“For example, if someone wants to know why a nurse administered a particular dosage of medicine to a patient, they can check the policy document in Objective to see if it was consulted. At one glance, the entire review and approval process for that policy is accessible. Therefore if there is a mistake made, the process can immediately be reviewed, improved and changed for the future.”

“Using Objective will not only give staff more clarity and control; it will make people accountable for their decision-making,” said Ms Chopra.

“We anticipate that Objective will positively change how people work. For example, a staff member will be able to have immediate, reliable and accurate access to critical information from their desktop. They will also be able to review and approve documents electronically, allowing for greater flexibility in their work practices,” said Ms Chopra.

“Counties Manukau District Health Board has been and always will be a leader in making the workplace better for our employees. Using Objective will ensure our staff work more efficiently and effectively, which ultimately means providing a better service to our community.”