Clínica Las Condes has become the first hospital in Latin America to achieve Stage 6 on the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), the seven-stage model developed by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) to evaluate the development level of health care information technology projects. Only about 8.5 percent of American hospitals have qualified for HIMSS Analytics Stage 6.

“This certification is the result of a very long process started by the organization almost ten years ago, setting as a priority the use of information technology to provide the best care for our patients,” said Dr. José Miguel Selman, medical director of clinical information systems, Clínica Las Condes. “In other words, the patient benefits directly, as the physician has a comprehensive view of the medical record thanks to the integration of all the systems. This way, the different specialties can be interconnected and have a holistic view of the patient's health.” 

The use of electronic medical records (EMRs) has been increasing worldwide. The complexity of hospitals in relation to the high level of information available for each patient has made it necessary to interconnect their information systems in order to provide the right information to the right person at the right time to improve care. In Chile, Clínica Las Condes has emerged as a leader in implementing this technology, a status the Stage 6 recognition confirms.

“Although many hospitals in Chile have made efforts to implement EMR systems, the difference resides in the integration and management of intelligent information which allows making informed clinical decisions at all times,” said Helen Sotomayor, information technology manager, Clínica Las Condes.

The global digital innovation arm of Telefónica has acquired a controlling stake in Axismed, Brazil’s largest chronic care management company. The deal, which was concluded at the end of last year, will enable Telefónica Group to accelerate the development of a complete end-to-end service proposition in the fast growing Brazilian e-health market, targeting private healthcare providers, corporate customers as well as the 90 million Vivo customers in Brazil.

According to data from the National Health Agency (ANS), 48 million people in Brazil have a supplementary private healthcare plan. Of this, 30%, or 14.4 million, are chronic patients. These figures demonstrate the huge potential of this market, which, as it grows, will improve quality of life for millions of patients.

The deal

The combination of Axismed’s healthcare know how with Telefonica Group’s technology expertise will enable the creation of innovative services for health plan providers and the corporate market.

With a strategy based on four lines of solutions for healthcare service providers, Telefónica is seeking to gain ground in the healthcare area, developing new business opportunities to take advantage of a clear reality: the traditional model of medical care is experiencing a profound transformation that will only be successful if the changes are accompanied by solutions provided by ICTs.

Over 150 professionals work in the Operator’s healthcare section: 40 of them are attached to the global division named Telefónica Digital and the rest are dedicated professionals assigned to each local eHealth unit, in each of the countries where the company has a presence. The focus, however, is on five principal markets: the United Kingdom, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

Four basic product lines

Remote management of patients, Telefónica’s star product, consists of providing services in all aspects related to patient monitoring, generally for patients with chronic diseases: the company can monitor them remotely and help to ensure that the patient can stay in their natural environment, that they suffer fewer acute episodes that lead to hospital admittance, leading to a better quality of life for patients and a reduction of costs for healthcare organizations. Telefónica, in every market, has noted that demand will exist in the future in this line and thus provides solutions for more efficient management of an ageing population, in which chronic diseases are the principal cause of death and cause greater costs for healthcare organizations. Telefónica Europe has managed to work with the public sector in this field while in Latin America it has aimed, at least over the past two years at the private sector.

Worldwide, the application of information and communication technologies to support national health-care services is rapidly expanding and increasingly important. This is especially so at a time when all health systems face stringent economic challenges and greater demands to provide more and better care, especially to those most in need.The National eHealth Strategy Toolkit is an expert, practical guide that provides governments, their ministries and stakeholders with a solid foundation and method for the development and implementation of a national eHealth vision, action plan and monitoring framework. All countries, whatever their level of development, can adapt the Toolkit to suit their own circumstances.Representing one of the most significant collaborations in recent years between the World Health Organization and the International Telecommunication Union, the Toolkit is a landmark in understanding what eHealth is, what it can do, and why and how it should be applied to health care today.

Source: International Telecommunication Union

The solution constitutes the first time IHS-Indra Salud has been integrated with SAP and will make La Florida the first hospital to implement one hundred per cent digital operations as part of the Hospital Concession Program run by the Ministry of Health of Chile through the implementation of applications at all levels of care: outpatient, emergency, hospitalization and surgical, amongst others, for all the functions of the care stations. They will also display each citizen’s electronic health record. Furthermore, the IT multinational will provide applications for support areas such as laboratory analysis, clinics, transfusions and pathological anatomy and support solutions for the critical units of the hospital, incorporating the integration of monitors of vital signs and anesthesia machines to provide visual information in real time.

Indra’s comprehensive solution also includes the implementation of a Business Intelligence tool to support decision making and the ERP SAP system in the financial administration, supply, and maintenance departments and the patient’s current account. Furthermore, the project will provide interoperability with the systems in the Healthcare Service network and those of governmental entities such as the Fondo Nacional de Salud (FONASA, National Health Fund) and the Sistema de Información para la Gestión de las Garantías Explícitas en Salud (SIGGES, Information System for the Management of Explicit Healthcare Guarantees). This involves the application of international standards to guarantee the integrity and legibility of information.   

This is a pioneering project in Chile as it involves the implementation of an overall e-health system in the first hospital the country’s government has sent out for tender as part of its hospital concession program. The goal of this initiative is to promote growth and modernization in the care network via the concession of contracts for the construction of facilities, and operation of basic, non-clinical services and IT functions of hospitals, with the Health Ministry keeping control of clinical management of the centers.   

The Chilean Government is planning to invite tenders for ten new hospital centers within two or three years, for which reason the project awarded to Indra will be of key strategic value with a view to the possible standardization of e-health solutions in the country.