Healthcare IT Innovation in the Most Surprising Places: When size doesn't matter

I'm back from Kansas City where we hosted a very enjoyable Healthcare Executive Forum event with some of our customers. Every time I get out in the field I'm amazed by some of the great work our customers are doing to improve work flow processes, patient safety, care quality, and the satisfaction of those giving and receiving care. Such is the case at SMDC Health System in Duluth, MN. Barbara Possin, M.S., R.N., Vice President for System Quality & Strategic Alignment, followed me on the podium to discuss how her hospital is using our technologies to make key performance indicators, managerial reporting, and quality initiatives more transparent across the organization. It was very good work indeed!

Also, a few weeks ago I shared information on this Blog about a hospital in Spain, Torrevieja Salud. There was so much interest in the topic of using commodity components to build truly robust yet much lower cost solutions for hospitals and health systems, especially outside of the U.S., that I decided to host one of my House Calls audio-casts on this subject. The program was conducted in both Spanish and English with appropriate translation as required. While this makes it a little more difficult to listen to compared to other programs we have done, I think you'll enjoy the program and the important lessons we can learn from Spain.

Torrevieja Salud Hospital: A lesson from Spain
This program is also available in MP3 for download.

A fully functional, contemporary hospital information system was built using readily available, lower-cost, commodity software. Does it sound impossible? That's what was done at the newly opened Torrevieja Salud Hospital in the Valencia region of Spain. How did they do it? How long did it take? And what did it cost? The answers may surprise you.

Panel guests

Luis Barcia, general manager of Torrevieja Salud Hospital, has since 2003 been responsible for the hospital's ongoing operations. Barcia has also worked as an administrator for the Valencia Oncology Institute Foundation (IVO), and the director for the Hospital de la Ribera. He is a lawyer with Master's degrees in international commerce and healthcare management.

María Martinez, chief radiologist of Torrevieja Salud Hospital, has a medical and surgical doctorate degree from the Universidad de Murcia. She has also worked as a radiologist at the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital. She has twice been a finalist for the prestigious Spanish Healthcare "Profesor Barea" awards. Her work spans from lectures and presentations to numerous articles in prestigious Spanish healthcare publications

Miguel Ortiz, chief information officer at Torrevieja Salud Hospital, is responsible for the hospital's information technology (IT) strategy and making it work flawlessly. Ortiz's prior work experience includes being the director of IT for the Hospital de la Ribera, the sub-director of Alzira, and an Accenture Coritel project manager. He graduated from the Universidad Politéctnica de Valencia and has a Master's degree in healthcare management.

Felipe Pascual, medical director of emergency services at Torrevieja Salud Hospital, specializes in emergency room (ER) care and is the lead trainer for the Spanish Triage Group (GET-Manchester). He is also one of the main trainers for the Spanish Society of Urgencies and Emergencies “SEMES”. In addition, his experience includes work in primary care, work as a clinical director, and giving lectures throughout Europe about ER management.

Bill Crounse, MD                  Healthcare Industry Director            Microsoft