Australia's largest listed health information technology company announced that its iSOFT business in Spain has won contracts totalling A$5.79 million (3.01 million) with two regional healthcare services. In a deal worth A$5.08 million (2.64 million), which will be booked over the life of the contract, iSOFT will develop clinical and patient management systems for one of Spains most important autonomous communities (regional governments). The company is part of a consortium providing an integrated healthcare system for 28 hospitals in a project totalling A$23.1 million (12 million) over two years. The consortium is upgrading current systems and infrastructure to provide a common platform for all administrative, clinical and patient management functions and so improve the quality of healthcare services for 8 million patients. The system is designed for up to 82,000 healthcare professionals.
iSOFT's contract, which includes patient administration, theatres, electronic prescriptions and data warehousing systems and integration services, covers the initial two years of the project. There is potential for ongoing development, maintenance and support.
Gary Cohen, IBA's Executive Chairman and CEO, said: "This is a major project of significant importance in Spain, especially as other autonomous communities are planning similarly joined-up, regional healthcare systems. The project also provides a foundation for further developments such as electronic health records."
Meanwhile, iSOFT has won a contract worth A$719,634 (374,000) to develop an e-prescription solution for the Navarra Healthcare Service in northern Spain.
Under the initial one-year contract, iSOFT will provide an e-prescription solution to eliminate paper prescriptions and so save time and costs and avoid dispensing mistakes. It will also give doctors prescribing rules and lists of recommended drugs and automate invoicing and payments for pharmacists.
iSOFT is working in partnership with Madrid-based information and technology services company IECISA.
The solution will be piloted at the Mendillorri and Mutilva health centres, the Navarra Hospital and 17 pharmacies this year, before being rolled out to 56 health centres and all 500 pharmacies throughout the region in 2010.
iSOFT's contract is for the initial pilot project and is its first with the Navarra Healthcare Service. It follows the completion of an e-prescription project for the Balearic Island Healthcare Service in December 2008. iSOFT's solution is now used by 55 health centres and 411 pharmacies in Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.
Guillermo Ramas, managing director of iSOFT Spain, Portugal and Latin America, said: "The e-prescription project in the Balearic Islands is a huge success and now serves as a model for other healthcare services in Spain. The 600,000 people in the Navarra region stand to benefit from this investment since the solution will help save money by reducing administrative workloads and eliminating duplicate prescriptions, improve accuracy and so avoids mistakes, and give doctors more time for patients."
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- iSOFT Group Limited's Profile
About IBA Health Group
IBA Health Group Limited (ASX-IBA) is the largest health information technology company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
IBA builds software applications for healthcare. We work with healthcare professionals to design and build solutions that answer all of the difficult questions posed by today's care delivery challenges. Our solutions act as a catalyst for change, supporting the free exchange of critical information across diverse care settings and participant organisations. We are the leader in the provision of advanced application solutions in modern healthcare economies around the world.
Today, over 13,000 provider organisations in 35 countries across five continents use IBA's solutions to manage patient information and drive improvements in their core processes. The group's sustainable development is delivered through careful planning, in-depth analysis of our market and anticipation of evolving requirements. Our business is driven by the collective talent, experience and commitment of more than 4,000 specialists around the globe, including over 1,700 technology and development professionals.
A global network of IBA subsidiaries, supported by an extensive partner network, provides substantial experience of national healthcare markets. As a result we offer our customers comprehensive knowledge of local market requirements, in terms of culture, language, working practice, healthcare regulation and organisational structure.
For more information on IBA Health, please visit the company's website at www.ibahealth.com.