HOSPITAL equipment and systems are designed for a variety of tasks. Some keep track of the administrative issues of a hospital, while others look after clinical information systems that concentrate on patient-related and clinical data such as the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) and the monitoring of life support machines, MRI scanners etc.

 

“IT system availability is no longer an ideal – it is a necessity”

EPR systems have the potential to bring huge benefits to patients and are being implemented in health systems across the developed world. Storing and sharing health information electronically can help to speed up clinical communication, reduce the number of errors and assist doctors in diagnosis and treatment. Equally, this kind of electronic data can also have vast potential to improve the quality of healthcare audit and research.

 

However, increasing access to data through EPR systems also brings new risks to the privacy and security of health records as well as practical aspects that need to be catered for in order to reap the full benefits of such a system without any disadvantages.

 

The importance of being able to access EPRs becomes apparent when looking at the accident and emergency setting or, for example, the cancer unit of a specific hospital. It is here that access to a patient’s medical history can become a matter of life and death.

 

It is clear that nowadays IT sits at the heart of modern hospitals, so it is key to ensure IT systems are available to healthcare professionals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means hospital management and IT departments need to be sure that the technology they deploy can monitor the entire system around the clock. So for the last few years hospitals and healthcare providers have turned to the latest and greatest technologies to support their systems, minimise the risk of disruptions to operations and ensure availability.

 

The right solution needs to be 100% effective, which is only possible if it monitors and receives data continuously with absolutely no hiccups. If this is not the case all the time, there could be lives at stake. If any unexpected downtime occurs, the ability to access records and the continued running of life support monitors and MRI scanners is at risk. Clearly, hospitals and healthcare providers need to ensure their systems are adequately protected against any unexpected failures.

 

Some hospitals deploy a high availability or fault tolerance solution to ensure continued uptime. Among them is Belfast City Hospital’s Oncology Centre in Northern Ireland, which is dedicated to providing care for patients affected by cancer.

 

The organisation decided to implement fault tolerance technology after it became aware of the consequence of downtime. The loss of its systems could become an administrative burden and in the worst case scenario could harm a patient. To ensure top quality care, it has made continuity of its systems a top priority.

 

“The importance of being able to access EPRs becomes apparent when looking at the accident and emergency setting or, for example, the cancer unit of a specific hospital. It is here that access to a patient’s medical history can become a matter of life and death ”

Following a rigorous assessment of IT systems in the facility, the hospital implemented everRun FT, a fault-tolerant, high-availability solution by Marathon Technologies to protect mission-crucial applications and systems.

 

The purpose of this dedicated oncology centre is to ensure all cancer patients receive the same standard of treatment regardless of location. To facilitate this the oncology consultants require access to the same patient information (from one central source) and the ability to confer with colleagues from different hospitals across Northern Ireland on best treatment and care packages which would be of most benefit to the patients.

 

For the IT department, the key challenge behind this was the provision of a system that was accessible by all the cancer units across the country 24/7, so it was imperative that a secure, reliable solution was implemented that could be easily updated in real-time. Further down the line, a Marathon ‘split site’ solution was installed which ensured that should something happen to the systems on one site, users will have access to systems on another site without interruption.

 

A joined-up IT infrastructure will allow clinicians to view patient X-rays and notes at any site in the country

The main beneficiaries of this are the patients, as patient care was at the core of the system design, which was undertaken by Real Time Systems. As part of an overall investment this system has seen to it that all the information on a patient, their diagnosis, treatment and progress can be accessed from any of the cancer units in the country and plays a paramount role in the advancement of treatments to combat the disease.

 

While undoubtedly many hospitals and healthcare providers are using various different systems, they should not forget that all these need to be protected. If the servers behind the systems experience downtime, it could cause havoc with patient-facing devices and the EPR system. IT system availability is no longer an ideal – it is a necessity. That is why hospitals and healthcare providers need to be sure that when adopting the newest, ‘safest’ technologies, they also ensure they come with rock-solid availability. Continuous uptime for the healthcare industry is absolutely essential to ensure the success of the business as well as the safety of patients.