An ageing population with increasingly complex needs means the demand for healthcare is growing year on year. But the health service’s ability to meet this demand is hampered by issues with recruitment, retention and finite resources.
The solution to this conundrum is widespread adoption of technology throughout the health service, says country general manager of Oracle Health in Ireland, David Clancy. Digital transformation is happening at a much slower pace in healthcare than other industries but it must be viewed as a necessity, the former economist says.
“Digital transformation needs to be de-risked and accelerated,” says Clancy. “When we look at the demand for healthcare services we know it’s only going in one direction. Meanwhile we know that we can’t add any more doctors or nurses into the mix. They just don’t exist, nor will we have enough beds to meet this demand.”
Clancy says that giving healthcare professionals the tools to do more and deliver better, safer care will help both staff and patients.
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“An investment in technology gives them more time to focus on care and less time chasing paper,” he says. “The key point is that if demand is outstripping our ability to add more GPs, doctors and nurses and we can’t add any more beds, the only thing to do is get more from what we already have. The necessity is to equip them with those digital tools. And we do know that digital works.”
For example, in 2019 Oracle clients at four hospitals within the HSE showed that by replacing paper charts with an electronic health record (EHR) in maternity and neonatal care, nurses saved on average 76 minutes per shift.
“This was achieved by simply digitising their narrative notes,” Clancy explains. “That’s 76 minutes where they can provide more care or actually take their break so they have less chance of burnout.”
However, Ireland has been notably reticent when it comes to widespread adoption of digital solutions; initiatives such as individual patient identifiers and EHRs have been long promised but are yet to be rolled out universally.
“Compared to other EU countries Ireland has a relatively low level of investment in digital health and, therefore, a relatively low level of adoption of what we would call truly transformative healthcare enabling tools,” Clancy admits.
That said, the Irish health service does have some notable examples of digital success, what Clancy calls “digital exemplars”. These could be easily adapted and scaled up, he says, thus removing one of the biggest barriers to the adoption of digital solutions – the element of risk. For example, St James’s Hospital, a hospital with one of the largest catchment areas in the country, has been live with Oracle Health’s EHR since 2018.
“When you have that kind of exemplar within a region, other hospitals look to it and they can leverage the hard work of everyone who brought that EHR live and see how they can adopt that solution within their hospital or facility,” says Clancy.
“The design phase can be the longest phase because you are making sure you are getting it right for the Irish healthcare system. So, we have done that in St James’s and designed everything needed to make it work, so it is essentially lower risk for everyone else.”
Looking to the future, EHR is gaining a strong foothold in the country’s maternity hospitals. Clancy points out that, currently, 40 per cent of babies born every year in Ireland “start their journey with an Oracle health record”. This is expected to increase to 67 per cent over the next 18 months as the system is rolled out to additional maternity units, he adds.
“That is a great starting point as we try to roll this out across the entire system. Now we have the evidence that these can be delivered in Ireland and work here. Therefore clinicians, citizens and the Government can see that these solutions can be delivered on a widespread basis.”
Clancy also notes that the appetite among clinicians and patients has “never been higher” in terms of digital adoption and investment in this area.
“When clinicians who have trained elsewhere return to Ireland to work, they feel we are lagging behind,” he says. “And we have patients whose expectations are changing. They say they can do everything else with their smartphone but can do very little in terms of their healthcare.”
The HSE is reorganising service delivery into six new health regions, a move that Clancy believes provides a unique opportunity to instigate the digital change that has been a long time coming. Oracle will be looking to support its existing clients in the HSE and voluntary sector as these regions come on stream.
“Integrated care is now a priority and the regional health areas will help to achieve the objectives of providing better, safer care closer to home,” he says.
Experts from the UK, where an integrated care approach has proven extremely successful, visited Ireland recently to advise.
“Their key message was that you can only deliver integrated care if the care providers can communicate with each other – and only if everyone providing that care across the entire patient journey has access to their care record,” Clancy says.
“They need that information in order to stop duplicating tests and make sure each patient is directed to the appropriate avenue of care. The only way you have that is via investment in IT.”
To find out more about Oracle Healthcare solutions visit oracle.com