Daniela Chueke, Managing Editor, EHealth Reporter Latin America
Daniela Chueke is Managing Editor at EHealth Reporter Latin America, an Argentina-based affiliate of HIMSS Media Group. Daniela's coverage in the Latin American healthcare IT market is syndicated in Healthcare IT News International.
'The key to our success was the integration of the medical and IT teams'
July 13, 2012
The SIDCA Clinical Station, a solution developed by Everis for the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital in Seville, Spain, was acquired by FLENI after the Spanish hospital ceded them the rights. In an exclusive interview, the engineer Marcelo Martínez, Systems and Operations manager at FLENI, tells Ehealth Reporter Latin America about the experience.
EHealth Reporter Latin America: Was the clinical department computerized before or after the other departments in the Foundation?
Marcelo Martínez: It was the final step. The systems department started operations in 2000 with two major challenges ahead of it: firstly we needed to start up the data center in the Belgrano office, which required planning and new solutions for every aspect of operations, from the equipment, servers and desks to the formation of the human team. Secondly, we had to install the new Rehabilitation Center at Escobar.
EHRLA: Meanwhile, did the Belgrano office have efficient computer solutions?
MM: No, we also had to implement an administrative management system because the existing one was obsolete. We had to turn to a jdEdwards which is an ERP that integrates functions including accounting, purchases, payments to suppliers, inventories, etc.
EHRLA: Did you also plan to include the clinical department?
MM: Yes, but we didn’t have much success at the time. We tried to find a solution for an electronic health record by taking a look at what there was on the market, and we signed a contract with a supplier by they didn’t give us what we needed. Then the country started experiencing economic problems, there was the famous ‘corralito’ and we had to cancel the contract in 2003.
EHRLA: Did you resign yourselves to continuing with administration based on paper and big files?
MM: At the time, what we decided during the administrative phase was to resolve all the billing management internally, so we developed a system called FactHos, which included billing, out- and in- patient management, contract administration, budgets, appointment administration, etc.
The jdEdwards inventory module solved the logistical problems in the pharmacy, FactHos covered the administrative side, and we had already managed to resolve the computerization of the business-related processes but we still had to computerize the medical department, which was still managed on paper.
EHRLA: Was this difficult to achieve?
