This new multi-story facility, opened in April of 2004, is comprised of a 141,000 sq. ft. hospital and a 50,000 sq. ft. medical office building (MOB). In addition to the numerous amenities found in a contemporary medical-care facility, the hospital has three state-of-the-art surgical suites designed specifically for cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, 4 cutting edge catheterization labs, a fully functional ED, as well as the latest systems for infection control. Initially opened with 52 extended care patient beds, all of which are intensive care ready, the facility was constructed with the capability to expand to 104 beds. The adjoining MOB includes a 9,000 sq. ft. catheterization laboratory and support spaces for advanced catheter based procedures.
Technology Challenge
Members from Bluegate’s Professional Services Division were engaged in June of 2002 to provide consulting services for all facets of technology related to the construction of Saint Francis Heart Hospital in Tulsa , OK .
This scope of services included
traditional IT infrastructure work, including cable plant, telephony and data equipment and design, along with the full breadth of services required for such a project: programming/assessment, detailed design/specification, and procurement, coordination with the architectural and project team, and contract administration and project management through facility opening in April, 2004. As an added service in this project, SFHH asked us to also perform a similar scope of services related to the complete healthcare IT application set that would eventually satisfy the vision of a fully integrated, fully digital hospital.
Our work for the applications at the hospital began with market analysis and current state of healthcare information systems, and determining how the IT vision for the hospital aligned with the prevailing direction in the industry. We approached the project by performing a functional requirements assessment of a typical hospital environment and applied the SFHH vision where the infusion of technology was most relevant,
especially in relation to providing focused-patient care at the bedside. The application set identified as key deliverables for a successful next-generation hospital decided upon by the team included the following:
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Single sign-on/portal access for Physicians, clinicians, and staff
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Patient Management/Scheduling/Patient Accounting
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Clinical Information Systems/Clinical Data Repository
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Electronic Medical Record
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CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry)
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Health Information Management and Transcription/Dictation
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Ancillary systems including lab, pharmacy, O/R, and cath
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Back Office (GL, A/P, A/R, Materials Mgmt)
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Enterprise Gateway for digital data flow throughout the disparate systems
The Bluegate team members were responsible for managing vendor selection, from initial contact and demonstrations to RFI\RFP generation and evaluation, through final contract negotiation. The preliminary vendor group included most, if not all, of the predominant players in the market. Eclypsis, Cerner, McKesson, Siemens, GE Healthcare, Epic, and Quadramed were selected for two presentation rounds and initial proposals. The SFHH board and Bluegate’s Professional Services Division then pared the list to three (Eclypsis, GE, and Siemens) for a focused RFP based on the functional requirements document.
After an arduous five-month process of due diligence for each vendor, GE Medical was selected as the primary application vendor for all clinical information systems, including lab and pharmacy. Stockell's InSight CS provided the HIS, and SoftMed was chosen as the HIM and electronic medical record. Finally, Great Plains from Microsoft was chosen for the accounting back office, HR and materials management.
Although GE was the primary vendor, individual contracts had to be negotiated with each application provider. Bluegate’s Professional Services Division teamed with the SFHH's outside counsel for each contract session, providing the technical lead for all discussions. We were successful in gaining numerous concessions based on functionality deliverables and price for each vendor. In all, input from Bluegate’s Professional Services Division achieved the following:
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Saved the hospital identifiable line items of almost $1.5 million in price concessions after “final proposal” cost, including at-risk components for key vendors in order to protect the hospital capital and operational pro-forma financials
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Contract negotiation time reduced to four-five days for each vendor, allowing the hospital to begin the implementation phase for key vendors while negotiations with sub-vendors proceeded
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Achieved a contractual go-live agreement from all vendors for all systems, medical equipment and interfaces with penalties for missed deadlines
After the contract phase was complete, SFHH requested our presence for on-site IT Project Manager functions to fulfill duties traditionally reserved for the VP of IT or CIO. Since the capital and operational proformas were not generated with knowledge of the eventual level of IT in the facility, no line item in either budget accounted for expenditures for a permanent senior management position in the organizational hierarchy. Responsibilities included:
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Implementation project management of major software systems vendors identified above, including primary project information conduit for each vendor
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Ongoing evaluation, procurement and project management of minor IT systems as necessary throughout project
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Information conduit for SFHH Board, CEO and leadership team for all IT issues
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IT liaison for clinical workflow development team
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Budget management of $7.5 million for hardware, software and miscellaneous IT and non-IT equipment
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Procurement decisions and logistical order management / implementation for all IT equipment, including servers, pc's, wireless devices, document scanners, barcode scanner/printers, etc
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Hiring recommendations to the CEO/CFO of eventual permanent IT staff
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Conducted monthly project progress presentations for the investor community
In addition to CIO duties for the applications and related systems, Bluegate’s Professional Services Division also performed our usual functions related to infrastructure, including assessment, RFI/RFP generation, vendor selection, and project coordination and implementation management for:
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Facilities design and planning
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Cable plant
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Nurse call and locator systems
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Telephony equipment and local and long distance services
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Wired and wireless voice and data networks
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Data Security
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Patient room design and layout for technology components
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Time/attendance systems
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EMSA radio antenna systems
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Pager/beeper systems
The resulting facility utilizes seamless data integration that combines applications for finance/billing, inventory/materials management, imaging, telemetry and archiving, order entry and medical records. This integration has allowed Saint Francis Heart to push technology directly to the patient bedside, not only improving patient-provider interaction but also maximizing patient safety through electronic record keeping and workflow. The resulting healthcare environment is one that reduces costs, speeds delivery of care and maximizes patient well-being. The project culminated with a successful on-budget, on-time opening on April 1, 2004.
