LEADING CANADIAN HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS DEPLOY INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE
Microsoft Canada's Partners Help Alberta Cancer Board, Interior Health Authority and Fraser Health Authority Improve Efficiencies and Reduce Costs
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MISSISSAUGA, ON, March 8, 2004 — Microsoft Canada Co. today announced three leading healthcare organizations in Western Canada—the Alberta Cancer Board, Interior Health Authority and the Fraser Health Authority—have worked with technology partners to help improve patient care. By harnessing the power of software, these organizations are distinguishing themselves as innovators within their field, and providing a framework for improved healthcare in Canada. From the administrators to the front lines, these organizations are using Microsoft products to ensure resources are focused on providing the best healthcare possible.
Striving to Improve Patient Care through Collaboration
The Alberta Cancer Board is addressing the need for improved collaboration between healthcare workers through the innovative use of information technology. The organization, which coordinates cancer research, prevention and treatment programs in the province of Alberta, recently implemented Microsoft Office 2003 to improve collaboration and productivity among medical staff and researchers scattered across the province. The organization selected Compugen Inc. to assist with the selection and deployment of Microsoft Office.
"In the healthcare field there is a shortage of professional health staff and the resources are scarce. This requires us to get the right information on a timely basis out to our staff in order to be effective and efficient in delivering services," explains Aslam Bhatti, the Alberta Cancer Board’s Vice-President of Operations.
"Our doctors and researchers have a tremendous need to share documents," adds Holger Hanke, Director of Information Systems, Alberta Cancer Board. "The Microsoft Office System provides doctors with the tools and access to resources that they require to make better, more informed decisions. This will impact their ability to provide world-class patient care."
Streamlining IT Operations
As a non-profit organization, the Fraser Health Authority (FHA) works to ensure that its resources are focused on providing the best healthcare possible – in part by managing its extensive portfolio of information management projects. The FHA services approximately 1.4 million people - roughly 33 per cent of British Columbia’s population – while employing 20,000 healthcare professionals and other staff members across a network of 12 hospitals and dozens of clinics, numerous residential care facilities and a wide variety of programs including mental health, public health, and home and community care.
The FHA regularly prioritizes projects that meet the greatest need for its network of hospitals and other facilities. However, traditional paper-based project initiation systems were inefficient models. The FHA turned to the Habañero Consulting Group, a Vancouver, Canada-based technology partner, to develop an Information Management Project proposal Solution using Microsoft Office InfoPath™ 2003 information gathering program and a Windows SharePoint™ Portal site to administer new proposals. The solution is helping the organization to reduce the work required to manage projects and the authority expects an internal rate of return of 53 per cent in the next 16 months.
“Using InfoPath helps reduce the time required to initiate a project by more than 50 per cent and eliminates the need to hire more project analysts to support our project initiation and tracking process,” says James Orobko, Direction, Information Systems, Fraser Health Authority. ”By streamlining the process, we are saving time and money and can reallocate our resources to where they are needed the most.”
Saving Time and Lives
Deeply committed to providing the best possible patient care to its patients, Kelowna, BC-based Interior Health Authority (IHA) is continually investigating new ways that technology can assist healthcare workers. The IHA’s highly mobile workforce was struggling with an unreliable remote access system which prevented mobile workers from gaining access to critical network resources and patient data.
Working with partner NexInnovations, the IHA selected Windows Server™ 2003 operating system to provide increased scalability, reliability and security for the organization. Windows Server 2003 is designed for mission-critical server workloads and is the recommended operating system for servers that run networking, messaging and inventory systems.
“This solution absolutely hit the mark for us a time when we really needed it,” said Pat Ryan, CIO, IHA. “User response has been extremely positive. We look forward to leveraging this system in our future IT initiatives.”
“For organizations in the healthcare sector, there is a need to weigh budget expenditures against the increases in efficiencies and long-run cost savings,” said Bob Binns, Director, Public Sector, Microsoft Canada. “Working with our partners, we have been able to provide our healthcare customers with solutions that offer both IT managers and healthcare workers the advances in system performance and productivity that can be realized through the use of leading edge technologies.”
About Alberta Cancer Board
The Alberta Cancer Board provides cancer prevention and screening, diagnosis, treatment, research and education through its cancer care facilities and programs throughout Alberta. Its world-class research facilities, located in the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, the Tom Baker Cancer Centre and the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Centre in Calgary, have contributed to international research into the causes, prevention and treatment of cancer.
About Fraser Health Authority
One of every three British Columbians is served by Fraser Health, the province's largest health authority. Fraser Health's 20,000 employees serve 1.4 million residents of urban and rural communities, from Burnaby to Boston Bar. Visit our web site at www.fraserhealth.ca for more health news and information.
About Interior Health Authority
For more information on the Interior Health Authority, please visit our Web site at: http://www.interiorhealth.ca
About Microsoft Canada Co.
Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Co. is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq "MSFT") the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. Microsoft Canada is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario with MSN.CA offices located in Toronto and eight regional offices across the country dedicated to empowering people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Visit Microsoft Canada's Web site at www.microsoft.ca.
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, InfoPath, SharePoint and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
