CUSTOMER: United Family Healthcare (UFH)
CHALLENGE: Combine the best of Western medical information technology with the family-style care model familiar in China.
OUTCOME: UFH transforms from a paper-based system to consistent, integrated healthcare and health management with TrakCare and InterSystems Partnership.
As the largest US-headquartered healthcare organization in China, United Family Healthcare (UFH) was founded to “introduce the best possible healthcare concepts into China, create a patient-centric, family-style care delivery environment, adopt state-of-the-art healthcare technologies, and provide personalized healthcare services.” Keeping this in mind, UFH started with just over 20 beds in 1997 and has developed dramatically into a consortium with six general hospitals, one rehabilitation hospital, and fifteen clinics, which are located in major cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Wuxi, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. “It would be difficult for such a huge hospital consortium to achieve sustainability without strict standards and a unified software platform,” said Roberta Lipson, CEO of UFH.
UFH is committed to providing patients with consistent healthcare services throughout their lives, from prenatal and pediatrics, to internal medicine, surgery, geriatrics, and home care. To this end, UFH chose to use the InterSystems TrakCare® unified healthcare information system. TrakCare aggregates all data in a single system, enables a unified EMR system, and gives care providers a complete view of each patient. All UFH doctors and nurses, no matter where they are from, can use TrakCare to serve patients by following the system’s standard processes.
In November 2017, Beijing United Family Hospital was successfully validated for Stage 6 of HIMSS EMRAM (Inpatient). This was the first time a private healthcare organization achieved this international certification in China. By using the InterSystems TrakCare system, Beijing United Family Hospital is now both JCI and HIMSS certified, and is one of the top medical systems in the world.
Optimized Service Mode for a Fully Improved Patient Journey
Since going live, TrakCare has changed the way UFH provides healthcare services, bringing continuous operational and clinical benefits to the hospital, and improving its patient journey, as well. “With complete capabilities, the InterSystems TrakCare unified healthcare information system empowers UFH to transform from paper-based, fragmented management to consistent, integrated management, and even to personalized care delivery and health management in the future,” said Dr. Jenny Shao, Director of Health Information Systems at UFH. “It is TrakCare that makes transformation possible and smooth.”
Using TrakCare, doctors can have a consolidated view of each patient’s medical and surgical history, medication history, current medications, family and social history and current health conditions, thus considerably improving safety and outcomes of care. Nurses benefit, as well, with doctors’ orders and healthcare processes presented clearly via the unified interface of TrakCare. Previously they were written on paper and often difficult to read and comprehend, increasing the chance of mistakes. For the pharmacy, the system displays all the patients’ information, including medication history, allergies, drug usages, self-administered medications, active medications, and medications for control of chronic diseases. TrakCare also serves as a “knowledge base,” providing doctors with medication advice and reminding them of the risks associated with certain drugs, thus promoting patient safety.
In addition, TrakCare enables better communication between care providers and patients. “Our pharmacists have already begun to communicate directly with patients, said Dr. Shao. “And for medical imaging, private cloud technology has been leveraged to establish the trans-regional diagnosis center mode.”
As for patient services, TrakCare can deliver appointment reminders and notifications of laboratory results to patients, for example, thus reducing the unnecessary waste of time across their entire patient journey.
Value of Data Insights: Improved Level of Population Health
According to Daniel Fulton, Deputy COO of UFH, UFH’s philosophy is to provide continuous healthcare to, and enable a healthy life for, patients. Toward this end, UFH must choose a viable, continuously innovative information system. Every project is about healthcare, not just IT.
TrakCare can also be used, in this era of big data, to transform data into information, knowledge and intelligence. “Mining data gives us insights into patient needs and actions to take,” said Dr. Shao. “Data insights empower UFH to carry out a series of care delivery plans, which may involve follow-up visits, advice, or chronic disease management. Over time, our patients, communities and populations are expected to benefit a great deal.”
“UFH’s services also include home healthcare, where family physicians are mainly expected to prevent and manage chronic diseases,” added Ms. Lipson. “In addition, UFH conducts screening of cervical and colorectal cancers. With data insights, the system automatically informs the care providers of a patient’s age, family history, genetic screening results, or other risk factors, and reminds the doctors to notify the patient of upcoming screening or follow-up visits.” In Ms. Lipson’s view, UFH should keep going toward
four goals:
- Reach beyond the EMR to a fully integrated and intelligent healthcare system
- Advance the current quality of services
- Extend care from hospitals to communities
- Widen the community of care to include patients’ families
Ms. Lipson is looking forward to continuing a seamless partnership with InterSystems over the next five years. The goal is to continue to provide fully “patient-centric” healthcare services and population health management that drives toward a higher level of service quality for Chinese families.