Technology Services - Systems Development

ACT Health
In August 2001, Working Systems Solutions was contracted to re-develop a Mental Health services information system for the ACT Department of Health and Community Care. The purpose of the new system was to facilitate clinical care and aggregate territory-wide data to better serve the needs of the ACT Government.

Government Mental Health Services are provided to the ACT community by two major institutions: The Canberra Hospital and Calvary Hospital. The Canberra Hospital already had in place a Mental Health Information System (called MHAGIC 3 - Mental Health Assessment Generation Information Collection) that was developed in-house. Instead of developing the new computer system from the ground-up, Working Systems recognised the value of retaining years of user input and a near perfect clinical fit, hence proposed building upon the existing MHAGIC 3 functionality.

The challenge for Working Systems was to preserve core functionality while evolving the system into a modern, scalable and component-based architecture.

The system developed by Working Systems Solutions Limited utilised leading-edge technology. We completely redesigned the application so it could be rolled out across the Territory in a way that minimised deployment and maintenance costs yet maximised functionality and accessibility, including Web interfaces.

An “n-tier” architecture was used for the MHAGIC application, whereby it was split into a database component on one server, a business logic component on another server and the user interface component running on client PC’s.

Working Systems also embedded its e-switch™ technology into MHAGIC 4, allowing a seamless integration with the ACT Patient Master Index (PMI). This was achieved via a two-way PMI Broadcast, where changes to patient details are broadcast both ways between the ACT PMI and the Mental Health PMI.

Work on the project commenced in October 2001, and the MHAGIC 4 development was successfully completed by July 2002, during which time Working Systems staff worked closely with Mental Health clinicians and hospital-based Information Systems specialists.

Working Systems was responsible for the full IT life-cycle development as follows:-

• Project Management
• Database Design
• Application Design
• Application Development and Implementation
• Interfaces to a number of external gateways
• Integration with drug databases
• Creation of Test Plans and complete testing (unit, system and integration)
• Acceptance testing.

Implementation assistance was also provided to DHaCC, with implementation being undertaken by DHaCC in conjunction with the ACT’s system integrator (InTACT).

MHAGIC 4 was rolled out at over 30 community-based sites across the ACT, including the Canberra Hospital and Calvary Hospital. The system went live as of September 2002, and has since received excellent user testimony from key clinical users. Work on additional enhancements to the system is currently on-going.

In its current state, MHAGIC 4 encapsulates years of clinical experience compounded with the latest technologies in multi-tier architecture. MHAGIC 4 is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive and advanced clinical systems for Mental Health services in Australia.

Department of Human Services (SA)

Working Systems Solutions was successful in a tender issued by the DHS (SA) for Patient Management, Financial and Materials Management Systems for the rural sector. Our healthcare information system package, Chiron Plus, and our Financials Package, Harmony, were proposed for this tender, and in 1993, DHS (SA) signed a State-wide licence for deployment of these modules in rural sectors.

This contract covers some 63 Health Care Units, and to date, there are over 60 implementations which are live all over South Australia.

Working Systems Professional Services Division recently developed a Web-based Fee For Service module which integrates with Chiron, and which correctly calculates the complex payments to sessional doctors.

Professional Services also implemented our e-switch™ product in order to facilitate interfaces to any third party products using any of HL7, industry standard or proprietary based messaging.

Another recent project involved the creation of feeds from the Chiron and Harmony systems to a Data Warehouse – this development was performed using Microsoft’s .NET framework.

The purpose of this project was to implement a common central store of financial and activity information derived from all country health units. This information will be used for reporting, planning, decision-making and operational purposes.

From a single consolidated source, users will be able to query, analyse and explore the substantial amount of financial and patient administration information across Health Units. This information can also be linked to additional data sets, such as ABS, HIC and the Integrated South Australian Activity Collection (ISAAC). The latter database is an admitted patient morbidity data collection designed to provide DHS (SA) with the information resources necessary to effectively organise, evaluate and plan health services in South Australia.