There`s no doubt that a new electronically-driven order of medicine holds the cure for South Africa`s healthcare ills. Electronic commerce, intranet applications, e-mail and a host of other largely Internet-driven information technologies are waiting in the wings to transform the industry.
Health-care providers and funders have already been enjoying the improved cost efficiencies, administration and patient care that these new communication tools offer for some years, even if only at the level of transmitting claims and data electronically.
But the real opportunities that information technology holds for the healthcare industry are radical - and largely untapped, says Hennie du Plessis, GM of PQ Africa`s healthcare division, PQ Health, who believes that the next decade will bring with it an entirely new kind of healthcare enterprise: the connected healthcare organisation.
"Internet technologies are enabling all the players in the healthcare system, from drug manufacturers to funders to hospitals, to exchange records, invoices, and images as never before. The result will be a few thriving new companies which have positioned themselves to meet the information-intensive and service-oriented demands of this new e-commerce way of business."
Technologies which are already making a difference locally include centralised debtors` management services, which aim to slay the bugbear of bad debt, and electronic stock procurement and inventory systems, which will slash fraud and drug theft dramatically. PQ Health is also spearheading a drive to standardise protocols between different service providers as the first step towards a countrywide patient data system.
"Look at the benefits: doctors could record and review patient information over the Web from any computer, wherever they happen to be," says Du Plessis. "Information entered by a nurse in a doctor`s office could be called up by the doctor from the hospital while on rounds." Modern security technologies like digital certification make remote access to these records a simple and safe process, and the potential savings in efficiencies, time and cost would pay for any IT system within months.
Apart from the lucrative claims switching industry, the real benefits of e-commerce for healthcare organisations lie in simple supply-chain management - business-to-business e-commerce solutions which synthesise the full range of back-end business processes for Web-based commerce. By linking merchants, suppliers, warehouses and carriers in real time, instantaneous order processing and fulfilment, shipping confirmation, and billing becomes a reality.
"The technology is already available to streamline resources, automate supply-chain management, eliminate traditional purchase-order (PO) processes and replace manual data entry and fax systems with an Internet-based purchase-and-delivery system," says Du Plessis.
In the past, companies like PQ Health`s QEDI set themselves apart by offering medical service providers the improved cash-flow and free working capital arising from superior claims processing. "Today that`s just a commodity, so we`re adding value by providing a host of value-driven services like online eligibility checking, claims validation and clinical information abilities," says Du Plessis. "We generate management reports based on the data. The shift is towards providing compelling and informative content."
PQ Health, for one, is looking to ultimately provide a broad range of health information and tools, including daily health news, original consumer-focused health and wellness articles. Du Plessis sees a world where family members will post their medical appointments and immunisation schedules on electronic organizers, and then receive e-mail reminders for them. "E-commerce can provide customised, credible and timely healthcare information to the communities we serve," says Du Plessis. "By localising and personalising healthcare information, we make it even more valuable to our consumers."
One of the key aspects of e-commerce, says Du Plessis, is that sentiment counts for very little - people will go where they get innovation and service. "We, and any other players who want to survive in a business landscape which increasingly demands Web-based commerce, are restructuring all the time to be in the best position to take our e-commerce offerings to market."
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