Medical administration group Prosperity Health has embarked on a project to maximise the efficiency of its database environment by implementing Embarcadero`s DB Artisan, Rapid SQL and Sybase Debugger database administration tools. This is in response to its current and anticipated growth and external industry pressures.
The project includes streamlining the current data model, enhancing database performance and implementing a Web front-end to ease staff overheads and enhance customer service.
"Re-engineering our member and product database, which has over 670 tables, has allowed us to develop a Web front-end to improve our levels of service to customers and providers of health services," says Bertus Struwig, director at Prosperity Health.
The Prosperity Health group consists of Prosperity Health Corporate Fund Managers, the South African arm of the company, and Prosperity Health Namibia, with more than 120 staff in both locations servicing over 270 000 lives under administration and 280 employer organisations, while managing nearly 70% of the Namibian private healthcare insurance market.
The group is striving to contain costs in an industry that is expecting a 7% increase in BHF/NAMAF medical rates, an 8% hike in hospital rates and as much as a 15% increase in GP and medication costs.
Enhancing staff efficiency and automating systems will allow the group to take advantage of its existing investment in technology, extending this to improve its return on investment and extract additional benefits from the system.
"Online realtime transaction processing allows clients hands-on access to daily statistics, claims information and analysis information in order to manage the scheme financially," says Struwig. It also enables the application of managed care protocols. The new system will also offer personalised views of information for members, service providers and clients.
The Prosperity Health group database and database management tools run on Windows NT 4 on a Compaq Proliant four-way Xeon system. It has processed over 100 million transactions over the past three years. These transactions are controlled by scripts that are now far easier to write, a task performed every day by the database administrator at Prosperity Health.
"We only plan on increasing our usage of the system with additional scripts, more information, more transactions and generally increased load on the database environment. The Embarcadero tools will allow us to adapt quickly to a growing business environment without increasing the workload for technical staff," says Struwig.
"The combination of Embarcadero products bought by Prosperity Health is allowing the group to analyse its current Sybase database environment, develop a new data model, rapidly develop new scripts and other code needed for the new system, and optimise performance to get the most from the system," says Alan Raubenheimer, CEO of Embarcadero Africa.
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