Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Healthcare Solution Deploys Standard Clinical Practices, Brings Accountability and Efficiency
Ushers in Affordability and Accessibility in Family Care with Accurate,Quality Medical Care
Overview
Country:India
Industry:Healthcare
Customer Profile
Hyderabad based Razi Healthcare aims to provide affordable medical care. It already has50 clinics across Andhra Pradeshand plans to expand Razi Clinics across the country.
Business Situation
With 50 clinics in South India alone, and many more planned in the near future, Razi Clinics wanted to deploy a solution that would standardize clinical practices andensure consistency in medical treatment across its clinics.
Solution
Razi Clinics deployed PALASH™ Clinical Information Management Solution to bring standard clinical protocols across all locations. The solution is built usingMicrosoft SQL Server, Microsoft Visual Studio,andMicrosoft .NET Framework.
Benefits
Efficient patient care
Optimum inventory management
Consistent, accountable patient care / “Integrating and institutionalizing outpatient clinical protocols at a primary care level with an electronic medical record has helped to achieve clinical standardization across a chain of family clinics.”
Dr. Sachin Ganorkar,Senior Leader - Clinical Quality, Razi Healthcare
Razi Clinicstransforms the primary healthcare spaceby merging quality with affordability.To increase the efficiency of itsone-stop clinics and optimize services,it partnered with Seed Healthcare Solutions (SHS) to deploy PALASH™ Clinical Information Management System. Built on theMicrosoft platform,PALASH gives doctors access to all medical records and guidelines for clinical protocols. Razi Clinics has benefited from optimized service quality, reduced patient wait time, and ensured diagnosis that is more accurate. At the same time, clinical protocols guarantee standard clinical practices and contributetowardsincreasedaccountability of physicians.The system also allows the management to track their doctors’performance. It recommendspathological tests and investigationsonly when required, thus ensuring that patients are not unnecessarily burdened with unnecessary expenses.
Situation
Established in 2009, Razi Clinics, India’s first chain of primary clinics, is the operating arm of Razi Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.With a focuson affordable, quality healthcarefor the masses, it strongly advocates the concept of "Your family clinic and your family doctor”.
Funded by Singapore-based Richard Chandler Corporation, its unique advantage is convenience and quality. A patient can consult with a doctor, get relevant diagnostic tests done, as well as pick up the prescription at the pharmacy. Minor procedures and services add further value and convenience.
Headquartered inHyderabad, Razi is rapidly expanding its network of primary healthcare clinics. With 50clinics in Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Visakhapatnam,and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, it aims to grow to200 clinics by December 2012. It will then focus on a pan-India expansion. Today it employs 250 skilled and trained doctors, pharmacists, nurses,and administrative staff.
Initially, Razi launched the clinics with standalone applications for clinical requirementsandcommercial operations such as billing, inventory,and pharmacy management.
This led to problems indata entry and security,as well as time management. For instance, Tally, an accounting solution, did not have an interface with existing proprietary solutions. This required additional workers to consolidate reports and analyze them. The stockavailability and managementin pharmacy werealso not thorough enough.
The biggest challenge, however, was standardizing clinical protocols. Razi wanted to outline standard practices,treatments, and prescriptions across its clinics.
Razi wanted toenhance the productivity and efficiency of its clinics, and bring quality andcontinual improvement in patient care.“We, at Razi Clinics looked for options to deliver more efficient, effective, and economical services,” says Dr. Sachin Ganorkar,Senior Leader -Clinical Quality, Razi Clinics.
Solution
Razi decided to partner with Seed Healthcare Solutions (SHS) to deploythe Clinical Information Management System (CIMS) called PALASH™. Dr. Sachin Ganorkarsays, “PALASH is an easily customizable and configurable,browser-based application, with a service oriented architecture. It is also user friendly.”
The intricate modules of CIMS have been developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, C#, Microsoft .NET Framework, Windows Communication Foundation, Silverlight 4.0, andMicrosoft SQL Server 2008,alongwith its business intelligence reporting capabilities.
SHS hasstrong domain expertise in the healthcare industry. It took 10 months to deploy the solution.SHS customized the solution to develop an interface with Tally 9i to display a daily financial summary. PALASH CIMS has a specific functionality to define SMS / email templates and configure these templates with workflows.
A third-party pathology laboratory interface importspatients’ reports in CIMS. These are stored along with the patient histories for easy access.
Beta testing was successful and the solution went live in May 2011. SHS deployed it for five users at 10 clinics and at the head office in Hyderabad.Currently the solution is hosted atthe head office but it plans to move the solution to the cloud in thenext 3 months. Dr. Sachin continues, “The cloud based solution will lower our capital expenditure. Also, as we go pan-India, we see our operating costsreduce significantly.”
Razi Clinics uses all the modules from patient registration to payroll, billing, accounts, labs, reports, and administration. Patients can register online or at the clinic.
A central database captures the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR). EMR encapsulates all the clinical details, medications, and prescribed investigations in an electronic file, retained for future reference, easy access, and accurate treatment.
SHS integrated the clinical protocols in collaboration with Milliman, a clinical protocols specialist. “Implemented in India for the first time, our clinics follow internationallyrecognized, evidence-based clinical protocols and efficient practices,” explains Dr. Sachin Ganorkar.
EMR not only holds patient records but also givesphysicians a list of appointments, enables online ordering of investigations, procedures, drugs, and consumables.
The data synchronizesthe activities ofclinics and the head office, anddelivers analyses and reports to the management.
Reports can be exported to Microsoft Office Excel,Word,or PDF. These are sent toexternal specialist doctors for reference and review.
In future, Razi intends to integrate smart cards with USB. This will capture all personal information and patient history such as diagnosis, procedures, scans, reports, etc.
Benefits
PALASHclinical information management solution (CIMS)helps manage activities efficiently and effectively.“The web interface helps decrease back-office operations, bringing down operating costs,” saysDr. Sachin.
Efficient Patient Care
Razi believes inoffering the best-in-class healthcare services to establish a strong bond and trust between its doctors and patients.Dr. Sachin emphasizes “streamlined clinical processes and operations enhance customer experience.” For instance, based on predefined execution time, services such as appointments, consultations, tests, and investigations are optimized.
He continues, “Wehave seen an increase in patient satisfaction because of our clinical practices and regular follow-ups as per global guidelines. We have decreased patient wait time from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.”
Optimum Inventory Management
With defined workflowsand procurement,along with dispensing of medicines at theon-premisepharmacy,there is optimal inventory management.Doctors can check availability of medicines and brandsbefore creating prescriptions.
Consistent, Accountable Patient Care
PALASH CIMS has integrated with Milliman Protocol Guidelines to ensure that physicians followthe standard EMR template to record patient history, previous prescriptions, and chief complaints. The protocol then outlines the ideal course of treatment, appropriate investigations, and interventions in a logical sequence.
The solution tracks how a doctor treats a patient and follows through until the patient is better. This brings greater accountabilityand consistent careacross locations and doctors. “Doctors are accountable to patientsfor clinical performance assessments and for taking remedial actions, not only at point of care but even later,” says Dr. Sachin Ganorkar.“This ensures the patient’s safety and also improvesthe clinic’s credentials.”
Performance of doctors and technicians is measured by assessing compliance with evidence-based treatment guidelines. It ensures that all patients receive the same standard of medical services, irrespective of their location and/or socio-economic strata. Moreover, if a patient goes to another Razi Clinic, his medical record is available online and the same treatment continues.
Dr. Sachin Ganorkarconcludes, “The clinical information management application offers innumerable time-and cost-saving features. It helps the physician retrievepatient medical records and makedecisionsfor immediate treatments.”
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About SEED Healthcare Solutions
Established in 2006, SEED Healthcare Solutions (SHS) is a software solutions company that provides a highly feasible, easy to use Hospital Information Management System (HIMS) for the healthcare industry. It has a renowned presence in serving various specialties in the medical field like orthopedics, ENT, cardiology, gynecology and maternity homes, diabetes clinics, dental clinics, as well as general hospitals. SEED works closely with its clients as their partners to improve their effectiveness and efficiency through IT enablement in the hospital set-up.