TCS brings healthcare solution

Johannesburg, 23 Jul 2009

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing firm, has released Provider Performance Insight, a business intelligence (BI) solution built on SAP Business Objects software for hospitals and other healthcare providers.

Using its proprietary BI framework, TCS says this dashboard will simplify projects, reduce costs and dramatically shorten time to value related to both hospital administration and patient care.

According to Rajeev Gupta, TCS SA regional director for sub-Saharan Africa, TCS has been in the health space for three decades. "We have over 6 000 highly talented associates dedicated to the life sciences and healthcare industry service unit, and have been providing hospital management solutions to private and government hospitals."

The Provider Performance Insight solution provides an overview of patient care delivery activities and evaluations of patient services. "The solution also optimises staffing levels to reduce overall cost as well as track staffing ratios over multiple periods. It also enables the real-time assessment of overall financial status and the ability to compare revenue across peer organisations or departments," Gupta says.

Hospitals have traditionally not embarked on end-to-end data warehousing and analysis due to perceived high costs, high complexity and long gestation period, he points out. Typical BI implementation projects in other industries can take up to 18 months for completion, Gupta adds.

"In response, TCS` Provider Performance Insight takes just three to five months to deploy and provides end-to-end solutions for both administrative and clinical processes to enhance patient services and improve strategic decision-making," states Gupta.

The escalating cost of healthcare makes it imperative for all healthcare providers to evaluate efficiencies in every aspect of their business, according to Gupta. "Both patient care and operational effectiveness need to be evaluated, improved and tracked on an ongoing basis and this will be enabled by our solution.

"TCS SA brings for the customers in sub-Saharan Africa the same expertise, knowledge and delivery certainty, which it has provided to its customers across the globe, to meet their goals and achieve their targets successfully," concludes Gupta.