Western Health will deploy an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) solution at its Footscray, Williamstown & Sunshine Hospitals over the next three years following a $2.35m contract with listed Australian company Alcidion Group Limited.

Alcidion’s Miya platform provides all the necessary data to best manage patient care, from the reception of the patient (Emergency Department or elective admissions) through the hospital wards and specialist clinical areas, through to discharge.

Clinicians can access individual patient information on mobile devices at the point of care, on computer work stations distributed across the hospitals, and on large format digital displays in shared work areas.  Multiple Apple iPads are deployed in every ward and clinical service area thus saving clinicians and care team members valuable time in their patient care interactions.

This data access includes clinical information such as pathology and radiology results as well as access to clinical documentation. Furthermore, the platform identifies emerging clinical risk and highlights “at risk” patients to the clinicians.

In the Emergency Department, clinical staff can quickly identify those patients nearing the National Emergency Access Target (NEAT) and plan care accordingly.

The patient flow component of Alcidion’s solution provides an overview of capacity and demand at both the ward and unit level, providing real time information about open and available beds, patients coming in (together with the admission source) and potential and confirmed ward discharges.

CEO of Alcidion Group Limited, Mr Ray Blight commented, “We are very pleased to have Western Health extend their relationship with Alcidion.  Western Health should be commended on their commitment to excellence in innovation and Alcidion is privileged to be work closely on these ground-breaking initiatives”.

“Efficiency improvements are by far the most significant driver for investments in patient flow solutions.  More specifically, healthcare organisations are focused on improving bed turnaround times and reducing patient wait times.  We are delighted to be working with Alcidion in this cutting-edge Patient Flow Solution”, Executive Director of Operations, Western Health, Russell Harrison said in a statement.

The contract is for an initial three-year term at $1.45m, with Western Health holding the option to extend the agreement for $450,000 per annum for the following two consecutive years.