Waitemata District Health Board embraces technological innovation

New Zealand's Waitemata District Health Board has come to an agreement that will transition the district into a paperless health care information technology hub.

Waitemata North Shore Hospital's Special Care Baby Unit and Ward 10 will, as a first step in e-health implementation efforts, will focus on becoming paperless using a number of systems and document storage solutions in order to eliminate the need for paper based operations, reports Scoop.co.nz.

Computer World writes that innovations through the system could grow out of anywhere according to Chief Executive Dr. Dale Bramley. He stated that these technological discoveries could then be integrated into processes for other district health boards. Ideas for changes will be incorporated into the digital evolution of each of the wards – then exported to other health care centers.

The paperless transition will streamline operations and give staff more time as they log into cloud-based content management services as opposed to sorting through huge stacks of paper, according to New Zealand's 3News. 

A Johns Hopkins study of over 40 hospitals and 160,000 patients found that paperless hospitals benefit patients and employees. Research shows patients staying in hospitals that ranked within the top third for technology usage had a 15 percent lower chance of fatality during their stay. Also, high scores for electronic order entry systems were linked to a 9 percent decrease in the odds of death from heart attack and a 55 percent drop in the same odds for coronary artery bypass procedures.

"Anyone who has been into a hospital will know they often get the same question many times," said Bramley. "It will definitely reduce duplication and we hope reduce errors as well, because it will be there electronically in one source of truth."

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