A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

Sami — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:44:08 GMT

In Lebabon the cost of programmers is no less that $30,000

when you consider salary and benefits. I believe in Spain, being part of the EU it cannot be lower.

So in 2 years a programmer cost $60,000, and 22 programmers cost 60,000x22=$1,320,000. This just for programmers added an extra 25% for overhead (Project leades, supervisors, medical expertise etc) and the cost would be 1.5 million.

Add on top of this the cost of servers, licenses for databases, exchange etc, the cost of PCs and you are probably up to 2 million. Add a PACS with specch recognitions and that takes you up anothe 1-1.5 million. I can go on and on..... the .8 million is not realistic.

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

Hal Hassan — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:54:28 GMT

Hi,

I have just been reading all your comments with my 11yr old daughter, she is doing a report on Torrevieja Hospital. Stats, all previous research prior to build, plans and opinions. Thanks for so much insight about the paperless environment, the hospital inhabits. It has given my daughter much to think on and is an extra point for her environmental swing for the hospitals existance, let alone our own personal excellant experiences at the unit itself.

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

hesham — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:50:25 GMT

is good idea but is very expincive

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

hlthblog — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:03:19 GMT

I wanted to share this comment from a HealthBlog reader regarding his experience at Torrevieja Salud Hospital.

E. Martin writes;

****************

I am ex IT and I am a patient of the salud. I am amazed at the interaction of their system, Every patient is processed by card [SIP] and given a summary of their treatment when they leave after any procedure or process. In that sense it is not paperless, but all info re patient is available to all system users as far as I can ascertain. I had an operation there on Oct 5th and the facility and staff were first class. It feels like a private hospital and a friend of mine who accompanied said it was better than her private hospital in UK in terms of cleanliness and appearance. They do tend to operate a fine hospital. it seems to be open longer hours than UK. The only point I would make is possibly starting with a blank screen may have helped them develop a better IT system rather than trying to accommodate outdated hospitals and thinking. Any other questions please feel free to email. Cheers Edward, resident of Torrevieja.

*****************

Thanks Mr. Martin. And, congratulations again to the team at Torrevieja Salud.

Bill Crounse, MD Worldwide Health Director Microsoft

Commodity software; the next wave in contemporary hospital information systems

HealthBlog — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:20:13 GMT

Hospital de São Sebastião Earlier this year, I shared the amazing story of Torrevieja Salud Hospital

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

Bill Crounse, MD — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 22:34:02 GMT

Tibor,

Thanks for your comments. There's a growing appreciation for, and interest in, applying lower-cost commodity software solutions in healthcare. I'm seeing evidence of this in both the developing and developed world. In my next Blog post I'll review some great work that's going on in a US-based hospital that is achieving a signficant return on investment by using commodity software to automate paper-based work-flow processes. The results are truly astounding.

Bill Crounse, MD Healthcare Industry Director Microsoft

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

Tibor Duliskovich MD — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 06:01:33 GMT

Just my two forints... I worked in medical IT for the last 15 years and was still surprised to learn, how inexpensive software development can be these days. I am not a developer and not a business person, so I repeat what I hear from others in industry.

One area where IT is strong in medicine is radiology. PACS or Picture Archiving and Communication Systems are driving imaging workflow. They used to cost dozens of millions of USD to develop just 6-8 years ago. With tools available today the life-cycle is much more intense and PACS could be developed for few millions in a year or two (I am talking about "basic" PACS covering 95% of everyday activities, not specialty workstations). That is ten times reduction in cost and two fold reduction in development time.

On my recent trip to Russia I learned that same can be achieved with local Russian companies for one third the price tag of a US-based company. And India supposedly is even cheaper... No wonder there are 250-300 hundred PACS variants on the global market. We are looking toward serious market consolidation in coming years.

On top of this, home-grown products are not only cheaper, but also fit exactly right for the facility, do not have unnecessary functionality or restrictions or unnecessary code for licensing. Plus the support is in house.

Have a nice day,

Tibor

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

hlthblog — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 02:21:22 GMT

Peter,

Thanks for weighing in. There's been so much interest in this topic that it will be the focus of the next installment of my monthly audio-cast "House Calls for Healthcare Professionals". The CEO, CIO and two clinicians from Torrevieja Hospital will join me on the program. Be watching for it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/industry/healthcare/providers/businessvalue/housecalls/audiocastoverview.mspx

The program will be posted sometime towards the end of February.

Bill Crounse, MD Healthcare Industry Director Microsoft

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

Peter Stathakos — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:53:04 GMT

Dr. Crounse,

I agree with your last statement. Obviously providing health care to patients is the number one priority but this example you put forth shows how existing, proven technologies may be leveraged in the health care space at a low TCO.

This is exactly what we should be striving towards in the developed world, while looking forward to a time when we can effectively provide these same solutions to developing nations as well. We can go through the growing pains and deliver even more effective, cheap solutions in the near future. This is an excellent case study to be sure.

re: A Paperless Hospital Information System for less than 1Million? What we can learn from Spain

Bill Crounse, MD — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:11:31 GMT

In the developed or developing world, providing expediant, safe and effective care to our patients is always the first order of business. I am well aware that information technology is still beyond the reach of many facilities around the world. What I wanted to point out is an encouraging trend; how the use of commodity software is lowering the total cost of development of solutions for the industry. While a million dollars is still a lot of money no matter where you live, it is a far cry from needeing to spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on IT systems and solutions to run a modern hospital. And every dollar saved on IT, is a dollar that can be spent taking care of patients. May that trend continue!

Bill Crounse, MD Healthcare Industry Director Microsoft