CSC (NYSE: CSC) Austria has announced a contract to deliver a system that will provide healthcare professionals with access to electronic patient records, wherever they are stored within the Austrian healthcare system. The technology will form an integral part of Austria's Electronic Health Record project, ELGA (Elektronische Gesundheitsakte). The contract to build the Master Patient Index (MPI) was awarded to CSC in January 2010.
The MPI is an application that will empower Austria's healthcare professionals to perform a nationwide search for patient records. It is designed to find an individual no matter where their records are stored so that medical staff in different hospitals or departments in locations spread across Austria can access detailed information on a patient in their care.
By providing a nationwide search facility, the application improves the safety and quality of patient care as medical treatments will be based on the latest electronic record, which will also include emergency information such as blood type and allergies. Through the MPI, healthcare professionals will get a detailed, single view of a patient's medical record.
"The MPI will cut the administrative burden on hospital staff, and most importantly, improve patient care," said Horst-Martin Dreyer, director of CSC Healthcare EMEA central region. "Healthcare professionals often do not know where a patient has been treated in the past and where to source their latest records. By providing a system that can do this automatically, we will improve efficiency and allow doctors to concentrate on providing the best and safest care possible based on the latest information available for each patient."
The Austrian Federal Ministry for Health (BMG) holds overall responsibility for ELGA and is supported by the federal states and the country's social insurance department, HVB (Hauptverband der Sozialversicherungsträger). A division of HVB, the ITSV (IT Services der Sozialversicherung) appointed CSC Austria to develop and integrate the MPI into ELGA.
The MPI is one of six components of the ELGA project and is based on the Central Partner Management (ZPV) application installed at HVB and developed by CSC Austria which contains more than 12 million data records. The other five aspects include a Health Service Provider Index, Document Register, Authorisation Concept, Health Portal and eMedication. The overall project is designed to deliver Austrian citizens a joined-up, efficient, electronic healthcare system.
CSC is already designing the MPI with specialists in development management, business analysis and information architecture. As the contract was won with its partner Siemens, both companies will be working collaboratively with the client to deliver the project by early 2011.
"This is yet another great example of how CSC is leading the delivery of eHealth systems," said Harald Deutsch, vice president CSC Healthcare EMEA. "By working with health ministries and healthcare providers across Europe we are driving reform to deliver more efficient and cost-effective care to save lives and money. We will continue to drive healthcare transformation by deploying solutions that provide better information at the right time, to the right people, and at the right location to help improve patient care."
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CSC is a global leader in providing technology-enabled solutions and services through three primary lines of business. These include Business Solutions and Services, the Managed Services Sector and the North American Public Sector. CSC's advanced capabilities include system design and integration, information technology and business process outsourcing, applications software development, Web and application hosting, mission support and management consulting. Headquartered in Falls Church, Va., CSC has approximately 95,000 employees and reported revenue of $16.2 billion for the 12 months ended July 2, 2010. For more information, visit the Company's website at www.csc.com.