Boston-based Partners HealthCare System has become the latest healthcare company to go live with an application based on InterSystems` high-performance Cach'e database. Partners developed a Web-based physician referral application, the No Administrative Hassles (NoAH) system, which simplifies the time-consuming task of patient referrals for physicians across the entire Partners network.
By reducing the time needed to perform a referral, NoAH creates the potential to produce savings of $3 million annually, based on average savings of $3 000 per year per physician within the network. NoAH is currently live at Tufts Health Plan, Boston`s largest Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), and in pilot mode at Harvard Pilgrim.
"Our goal was to develop an application that could significantly reduce the amount of time that clerical staffers spend on referrals while improving the level of patient care," says Amy Kennedy, corporate manager of enterprise applications at Partners. "NoAH users enter the patient information once into an online form, eliminating the need for duplicate effort for specialists and insurance providers. With Cach'e, we were able to develop the system quickly, and have it dovetail neatly into our other applications."
Using NoAH`s standardised electronic form on the Web, primary care physicians notify specialists and patients` insurance carriers simultaneously, providing the patient`s name, demographics, treatment history and any additional required information.
Partners is a multibillion-dollar healthcare network including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women`s Hospital, Northshore Medical Center, Faulkner Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, McLean Hospital and an oncology joint venture with Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Cach'e is used in many clinical applications at Partners, particularly those that require high performance and scalability. It delivers the same speed to many thousands of users as it does to one, which makes it ideal for applications in the healthcare service market.
Through a series of mergers, Partners HealthCare System has grown into a multibillion-dollar network of care providers spanning the breadth of Massachusetts. Founded by two world-renowned institutions, Boston`s Brigham and Women`s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, and closely affiliated with the Harvard School of Medicine, Partners encompasses a total of 15 healthcare facilities to which it provides a continuum of coordinated, high-quality care. With 35 000 end-users and 5 000 concurrent clients, the load on the Partners integrated network is substantial.
"Partners HealthCare has developed a truly innovative way to reduce its administrative burdens," says Henry Adams, country manager at InterSystems South Africa. "By combining Cach'e post-relational technology with creative application design on a Web platform, the company has reached its twin objectives of cutting costs while improving the overall quality of care."
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