The first locally developed hospital management system using Oracle`s database platform has been released by Starlight Healthcare Systems (SHS) a division of B Berry Holdings.
The Starlight solution is currently being implemented in the local healthcare industry after successful pilot tests at two mining hospitals and at the government-supported Nelspruit Hospital.
Bryan Berry, CEO of SHS, an Oracle business partner, says the fully integrated system is poised for international release through SHS` London office.
The system, which took five years to develop, is based on Oracle`s database platform, which is an integrated element of the solution. It allows every aspect of hospital management to be integrated into one complete system, according to Berry.
He says the Starlight system meets the requirements of healthcare providers in the government, corporate and private sectors, and incorporates the latest technology from both the IT and healthcare industries.
"In addition to facilitating the production of appropriate statistics, the system assists healthcare providers to make informed policy decisions from both clinical and financial perspectives," he says.
"Full patient history and clinical details are maintained by Starlight, which monitors the system`s operation. In addition, security against unauthorised access is comprehensive and audit trails are kept to identify operators who enter and make changes on records."
Berry says SHS` selection of the Oracle database platform has been backed by the SA National Department of Health, which has selected it as "the standard database" for this type of application.
"This means Starlight is appropriate for all healthcare providers in SA. It addresses all aspects of the medical industry and is designed to efficiently manage clinical, administrative and financial issues.
Berry adds that the decision to develop Starlight came after an extensive search locally and abroad for IT solutions for healthcare providers. "It became apparent that there were no medical information solutions for hospitals that were completely integrated," he says. "Many hospitals have to interface with as many as six different systems to achieve the results they`re looking for."
Key features of the Oracle-based system include an ability to accommodate a large OLTP database application for terabytes of data storage, together with high availability and reliability. Different data types are also capable of being managed in the database - such as standard text and multimedia. Other Starlight functionality includes relational databases, multi-tiering, to facilitate accurate billing methodologies, stock control, patient tracking and statistical availability.
Turning to the application at Nelstruit Hospital, Berry says the hospital also uses Starlight for applications such as HR, kitchen management, occupational health, pathology, radiology and laboratory management, since the system has many modules.
"All Nelspruit Hospital`s divisions are linked into one system. For example, the system links X-ray equipment in the Radiology unit with test equipment in the Pathology laboratory and monitoring machines in the Cardiology clinic.
"In addition, local Mpumalanga doctors from their respective surgeries could link into the system."
Berry says the benefits of using Oracle`s technology include the ability to store massive volumes of data. "On our test Oracle database we have 40 000 patients and we are able to retrieve a patient`s record in less than a second.
"With the recent cholera outbreak in Mpumalanga the Nelspruit Hospital was able to use mapping technology to quickly obtain information on the spread of cholera."
Berry advises that Starlight is being continually developed to meet changing requirements. "A recently introduced advance is the ability to interface with a geographic information systems (GISs) to produce detailed epidemiology information using global positioning records. Although originally developed for cholera tracking it can be used for tracking most diseases. In addition, the development of a telemedicine facility is almost complete."
The system has been endorsed by KPMG Healthcare Management Advisory Services. Director Charles Dalton believes that from a hospital management perspective the Starlight system is able to easily combine clinical, non-clinical, administrative and financial data in a format not currently available within SA.
"It will greatly assist managers in their day-to-day decision making. An added advantage is that it is a truly South African-developed product that has been designed to meet the demands of the local market and not an international generic product that requires considerable tailoring," Dalton says.
According to Alice Ridgway, account manager at Oracle SA, the Oracle DBMS supports enterprise-wide access to any type of data (standard plus multimedia), any application, data warehouse, Web or online transaction processing (OLTP), and to any scale (one user to thousands of users, and from 1MB to Terabytes). "It provides fast response time and scaleable operations on extremely large amounts of data."
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