Malaysian Deputy Minister for Health views new patient initiative at Mater Private Hospital
- Release Date: 16/09/2006
- Media Contact: Miranda Hunt 0410 417 790
Mater Private Hospital Brisbane will host the Malaysian Deputy Minister for Health on Saturday 16 September to showcase a new generation patient-centric inventory automation suite called SurgiDat which was implemented recently at the hospital.
Surgidat is comprehensive software package, developed by Medical Systems Designs (MSD), that works in conjunction with infrared scanners.
The scanners read a barcode on a tiny square of porcelain laser-bonded to each instrument, which are accessed via touch screens in the sterilising unit and each operating theatre.
This method allows hospitals to track individual instruments from the sterilisation unit to the theatre and establish whether the sterilisation process has been compromised at any stage of the process.
According to Mater Private Hospital Executive Director, Mr Don Murray, this new advancement in tracking instruments eclipses previous models and delivers much higher safety for patients.
“In the past, sterility of instruments could only be confirmed at tray level and with a large degree of manual checking. With Surgidat, we can trace the entire journey of the instrument to confirm that the process was complete and effective.
“The database will assist in the instrument count during cases and can even identify which patient the instrument has been used on,” Mr Murray said.
Mater Private Hospital Brisbane is the first private hospital in Queensland to introduce the system, with Mater Private Hospital Redland soon to follow.
Surgidat will also provide the added advantage of validating individual instruments at the start of a procedure and provide a count in of instruments.
“Because we are barcoding every instrument, we can ensure that the trays being put together for a surgeon contain all the correct items for that particular procedure,” Mr Murray said.
“When the procedure is completed, the equipment is scanned and counted out again, ensuring all equipment is present and accounted for.”
“This new software package streamlines the process, is more cost effective and provides a number of benefits to the surgeon, theatre staff and the patient,” he said. “It's a great system.”
Peter Hooper, Sales manager for MSD says that, “the unique aspect of our solution is that not only do we capture inventory information in a patient centric module but then feed this to other systems to enhance their capability.
“The system has the ability to capture information on prostheses and consumables and pass this to existing billing engines and material management systems for them to process.
“This increases your return on investment by increasing revenues, decreasing stock wastage and increasing patient safety. MSD is an enabler of data in the inventory automation space,” he said.