Trixi worked with The Royal Melbourne Hospital to deliver improved patient experience and flow by enacting a seamless integration between EMR, Asset / Work Management and sensors.
IN BRIEF
- Integration of Epic Electronic Medical Records with IBM TRIRIGA has resulted in simpler and more time efficient management of patient transport and cleaning services.
- HL7, a healthcare industry standard messaging protocol, is used to abstract the system context so the TRIRIGA integration can support any HL7 compliant solution.
- Information is captured in Epic, transformed to HL7, then to TRIRIGA to create service requests and work tasks.
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Client The Royal Melbourne Hospital Platform IBM TRIRIGA / Epic Electronic Medical Records Project Improve patient experience and flow IBM TRIRIGA implementation specialist Trixi
For nursing staff at The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), the oldest hospital in Victoria and one of two adult trauma centres within metropolitan Melbourne, managing patient admissions, patient flow, portering and service requests was a time-consuming and complex process. That is until Trixi Building Solutions was engaged to transform the process by seamlessly integrating the Hospital’s Epic Electronic Medical Records with IBM TRIRIGA.
A 2018 Proof of Concept proved the additional benefit of Internet of Things (IoT) PIR sensors in hospital bathrooms integrated with TRIRIGA to create usage-based cleaning schedules. This delivered a better understanding of usage patterns throughout the Hospital. A subsequent roll-out of sensors on facilities, plant and equipment used AI and analytics to predict asset condition and failure before assets fail.
Duplicated process and data entry is time consuming and error prone
Much is expected of nurses in modern hospital environments. As well as the complex challenges of patient care, nurses are increasingly burdened by complex admission and transfer administration.
At RMH, nurses used two separate enterprise solutions to fulfil patient transport and bed cleaning requests. The Hospital’s Epic Electronic Medical Records system was used for patient information, diagnostics, medications, transfer and discharge processes, while IBM TRIRIGA was used for AMAF asset management, environmental services, cleaning and internal patient transfers.
Nurses were required to manually transcribe or cut-and-paste patient information, locations and spaces, service type and comments between the two systems, and users had to check each application for service request updates. The process was time consuming and error prone, slowing down clinical throughput and admission readiness, including patient portering and cleaning of beds.
Transformation through integration with TRIRIGA HL7
Trixi Building Solutions was engaged by RMH to deliver an integrated Epic Electronic Medical Records to TRIRIGA solution, delivering improved patient flow through the Hospital. HL7, a healthcare industry standard messaging protocol, was used to abstract the system context so the TRIRIGA integration can support any HL7 compliant solution.
With the integrated solution in place, nurses use Epic to raise internal patient transport and bed cleaning requests for the responding workgroups to complete. Epic now shows the status of IBM TRIRIGA work tasks. Service requests can be cancelled from both Epic and TRIRIGA at the appropriate stages, with each system reflecting the status.
IBM TRIRIGA users are provided a consistent and normalised format for work tasks. A command dashboard shows service request performance.
“The integration of Epic with IBM TRIRIGA and IoT has delivered transformational results for RMH, streamlining the administration requirements of nursing staff and improving patient experience and flow through seamless integration between EMR, Asset / Work Management and sensors.”
— Mark Williams, Director | Trixi
A single, integrated system means simpler and more time efficient management of patient transport and cleaning services. KPI reporting on these two activities is now included in the Hospital’s central Digital Co-ordination Centre (DCC) managing daily operations.
How the integration works
IoT TRIRIGA Integration
Following the successful PoC, Trixi has delivered the IoT to TRIRIGA integration solution for RMH bathrooms. Based on a trigger entry count into the toilet facilities (currently set at 100 persons and averaging 15–20 visits per cubicle), a clean task is automated and an alert sent to the responding workgroup (cleaning staff) on a mobile smart device to complete a bathroom clean.
The solution automates a former manual process based on actual usage (in real time), revealing valuable data-derived insights into bathroom usage and cleaning frequency, and resulting in improved consumer experience.
Trixi Building Solutions’ Mark Williams says: “the integration of Epic with IBM TRIRIGA and IoT has delivered transformational results for RMH, streamlining the administration requirements of nursing staff and improving patient experience and flow through seamless integration between EMR, Asset / Work Management and sensors.”
The Royal Melbourne Hospital is one of the largest health providers in Australia, providing a comprehensive range of specialist medical, surgical and mental health services, as well as rehabilitation, aged care, specialist clinics and community programs. The RMH employs 11,000 people, providing services such as trauma, and centres of excellence for tertiary services in several key areas, including neurosciences, nephrology, cardiology and virtual health.
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