Te Whatu Ora Waikato, formerly the Waikato District Health Board, has tapped Altera Digital Health to implement a full suite of cloud-based anaesthesia information management tools from healthcare technology provider Provation to replace the old paper-based processes in its health services.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

Based on a media release, Altera will be delivering the Provation iPro Anaesthesia system to the Waikato Hospital and Thames Hospital, which collectively run 34 operating theatres and 37 PACU beds. The iPro system consists of the iPro pre-admission testing, IntraOp, Acute Pain Management, PACU and Analytics.

iPro Anaesthesia provides 24/7 support and continuous access to patient health information and can wirelessly stream patient physiological data from anaesthesia machines. It also allows clinicians to track efficiency metrics, compliance, and clinical insights.

Additionally, it has the ability to interface with EHR, PAS, pathology and radiology systems; features a narcotic reconciliation functionality; and can be integrated with Pyxis for anaesthesia medications management.

The system is targeted to go live in both hospitals by the end of March next year.

WHY IT MATTERS

Altera bagged the contract to digitise the hospitals' perioperative processes from an open market process initiated by Te Whatu Ora Waikato, the health district which serves a population of more than 425,000.

A spokesperson for the agency said they sought the digital anaesthesia solutions "to increase patient safety and service quality through the digitisation of the perioperative processes and connection of the anaesthetic machines telemetry to a common database".

In a statement, Altera said it will work closely with local health authorities and clinicians to configure the iPro Anaesthesia system to "reflect local practices and nomenclature". "This ensures that the system reflects local terminology, drugs, workflows and system integrations unique to that particular healthcare environment so that it blends in seamlessly," Todd Haebich, the company's ANZ general manager, explained.

THE LARGER TREND

Altera has also implemented the Provation iPro system at the Mt. Gambier And Districts Health Service in South Australia. The Royal Adelaide Hospital has also adopted the same system, whose implementations started in 2017 with the go-live of the iPro IntraOp.

In Singapore, the system has been delivered to Changi General Hospital and Sengkang General Hospital while implementations are ongoing in the Singapore General Hospital and the National Heart Centre Singapore. It is also live in St Lukes Medical Centre in Manila. 

In other news, SingHealth recently extended its contract with Altera to further enable interoperability across its network. The latest agreement extends their partnership, which started in 2017, through to 2029.