 Healthcare productivity in
England hit by poor integration of legacy systems
Misconceptions about cost and disruption are barriers to modernisation
Results
of a survey illustrate that, despite the progress
of NHS England's National Programme for IT
(NPfIT), significant improvement is required to educate
healthcare IT professionals about how their existing systems can be
integrated to support the new initiatives in the short, medium and in some
cases long term.
The survey,
commissioned by WRQ, a privately held software company, discovered that two
thirds (67%) of IT professionals from English
healthcare organisations rate the integration of legacy applications1
as either, ‘essential’ or ‘valuable’. However, the research also revealed
that of this 67%, less than half (44%) indicated that they were currently in
the process of integrating their legacy systems. This demonstrates that
there is an ongoing need for organisations to be appraised of the ease of
unlocking the potential of information found in legacy systems.
The
findings point to the fact that legacy systems are still critical and will
frequently continue to be so. The opportunity to unlock legacy data and
integrate processes represents tremendous value, particularly for
budget-constrained public sector organisations. With the right strategy and
software, these can easily be integrated with newer initiatives and
applications, ultimately providing improved quality of care for patients.
The survey
highlights that there is also room for productivity improvements across the
healthcare sector with almost a quarter (22%) of respondents stating that
accessing green-screen legacy applications is currently a time-consuming
process. More than a quarter (26%) went on to comment that the average time
spent by healthcare workers each day accessing information via green-screen
terminals is in excess of two hours.
Paul
O’Connell, head of WRQ UK, comments: “The fact that 65% of respondents
stated that they are looking to either extend the life of their legacy
systems, or integrate their legacy systems with new solutions, highlights
just how important these are. Yet it is disconcerting to note that of those
who have not already integrated their applications, nearly half (46%) have a
fear of the disruption and slightly less (42%) have a fear of cost.
Organisations simply need to know how to unlock the potential of their
legacy systems as it’s a much more cost-effective option when compared to
ripping out and replacing them. With this approach, healthcare organisations
can more readily and rapidly embrace the potential returns of the Connecting
for Health2 programme.”
O’Connell
concludes: “As an accountable public sector body, it is imperative for the
healthcare industry to be seen as delivering an efficient and effective
service to its customers; that is, the general public. However, the reality
of ever-declining budgets means that the healthcare sector must be creative
in its attempts to execute new initiatives in the fastest way possible. We
must continue in our attempts to close the knowledge gap, particularly in
light of the Connecting for Health programme. This will ensure that
healthcare organisations in the UK take maximum advantage of the tools that
are available to them to access legacy information and, ultimately, to
deliver real value for money.”
1. Legacy
applications are defined as character-based ‘green screen’ applications
based on host platforms such as DEC, Open VMS and UNIX.
2. NHS Connecting for Health is the new
UK Department for Health agency (April 2005) responsible for the National
Programme for IT.
About
the survey
This survey
was conducted for WRQ in March 2005 by market research firm, Emedia. The
results were based on 100 survey responses received from IT directors in the
healthcare sector based in the UK.
For more information
Elise Bulger
Pleon
Tel: +44 (0)207-298 7096
Email:
elise.bulger@pleon.com
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