After several years of design and development, NT hospitals have launched a state of the art Operating Theatre Management System. The new Operating theatre system is now live in four NT hospitals. Tennant Creek Hospital implementation is being finalised.
The aim of the development was to improve and stream line the processes around Operating Theatre Wait Lists and Theatre Booking.
The Theatre Schedulers use the on line diary as a major tool in their work practice and it allows the Theatre Wait List and Booking information to be available at a glance. The diary enables rescheduling to be completed quickly and easily using cut and paste functionality. The new Wait List is easy for quick checking and auditing of the wait lists with the use of filters to identify subgroups within the list. Theatre schedulers can quickly address phone queries about wait lists and bookings.
Karen McGuire the RDH Theatre Scheduler explains that 'the facility to cut and paste in the on line diary makes it easy to plan and move operations so that the surgeons can allocate their time effectively and the theatres and equipment are fully utilized.'
The Operating Theatre module contains on screen maps which are interactive allowing doctors and nurses to take the patient through the stages of the operating theatre. This functionality has been provided to enable easy tracking of the patient through the theatre visit.
Real time data entry of a patient's theatre visit will improve operating theatre management and enable the timely and efficient management of wait list information.
The inclusion of coded information will enhance and improve the quality of reporting. It will also enable benchmarking at procedure level.
Over 250 DHF staff members across the NT were trained to use the Theatre module. The rollout and training was staggered across the four NT hospitals over a four-month period. Implementation occurred at
- Royal Darwin Hospital April 1
- Katherine Hospital May 7
- Gove District Hospital May 21
- Alice Springs Hospital June 16
Kristine Luke the Director of Acute Care Information Services explained that the new theatre module contained leading edge design and programming; the module is part of CareSys the Hospital Information System. Acute Care Information Services project team worked closely with hospital staff and Jade programmers to develop the module. 'The team was exceptional and this shows in the quality of the program and the progress of the implementation.'
DHF would like to acknowledge the tremendous contributions made by management and staff employed by Jade Software Corporation and the project management of Jane Mathews from Ascribe Computing Software in delivering this advanced clinical information system.
Media Contact: Sonia Peters 0401 119 550
Date released: 9 July 2008
