August 13, 2003

SHANDS HEALTHCARE

THE CHALLENGE

Shands HealthCare, affiliated with the University of Florida Health Science Center, is one of the premiere health systems in the Southeast. The system is made up of nine, not-for-profit hospitals, a network of approximately 80 affiliated primary and specialty practices, and a workforce of more than 10,000 employees, including nearly 2,000 nurses. Its healthcare professionals cover virtually every medical specialty.

The Shands Transplant Center at UF is ranked 14th nationally for overall transplants performed. The Center features multidisciplinary teams of specially trained physicians, coordinators, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, physical therapists and psychologists who are experts in transplant care. The program draws transplant patients from throughout the United States and has been performing transplants since 1966. In fact it was University of Florida surgeons who performed the first successful kidney transplant in the state.

Over the years Shands expanded its transplant program to a total of six specialties-liver, kidney, pancreas, heart, lung and heart-lung. Its skill and success in transplants has been outstanding. However, among the programs there were six databases for tracking patient information, everything from height and weight to blood type and lab results. It was becoming very difficult to manage and maintain six disparate applications running on different operating systems and utilizing different software. Although the data was available, it was proving difficult to manage.

With more than 300 transplants being performed every year, the need for a single database became increasingly apparent. Shands began to search for a solution, with this cautionary edict from Richard Howard, M.D., medical director, Shands Transplant Center at UF: "the priority is data integrity."

THE SOLUTION

The search began by creating what the transplant team would consider a "dream database," said Ian Jamieson, transplant manager.

"It needed to be strong in demographics, the transplant phases, patient management and diagnostic testing," he said.
The search committee went through an exhaustive process of examining all existing databases and listed the most important information fields, starting at the required strengths and working down through all subcategories. The final result, a product requirements document, identified a need for 1,184 information fields. The list filled a 3-ring binder and took six months to complete.

Shands already had decided to buy an off-the-shelf package because the hospital's IT department did not want to develop and support another adhoc computer system. The next step was to send a Request for Information to six vendors under consideration. An independent consultant was hired to manage the process and ensure that the selection was objective.

Of the six vendors who replied to the request for information, three were invited to come to Shands at UF to demonstrate their product. More than 100 Shands transplant staff members attended the demonstrations and each was required to complete an evaluation form before they left.

THE RESULTS

"HKS best met our requirements," Jamieson said. "Its main strength is it caters to all transplant programs. They have modules for each of them, therefore meeting the differing needs for each of our six transplant programs."

Shands now has converted 36 years worth of data in six transplant programs to HKS' solution, called OTTR, for Organ Transplant Tracking Record. While they do not have measurable results yet, the Shands transplant team already is impressed. It is apparent that daily use of OTTR by the coordinators and transplant assistants will make their overall operation more efficient, Jamieson said. OTTR also will be an important research tool, easily accessible by physicians.

"HKS has the most experience in transplant software and the greatest depth of knowledge," Jamieson said.
OTTR's ease of use and reporting features mean greater control over data entry, which allows Shands staff to constantly monitor the integrity of the data.

"Once the data is entered by a transplant assistant, it is reviewed by a transplant coordinator, then reviewed by an information specialist, then reviewed by a senior information specialist and ultimately reviewed by the physician," Jamieson said. "We feel we have a strong system of checks and balances in place to satisfy the data needs of Dr. Howard and our transplant staff."

Ease of use, quality of data, depth of knowledge. Those are the hallmarks of OTTR and the reason it is the oldest and most experienced provider of software technology for the transplant market. Today, OTTR is the software trusted by more than 33 hospitals supporting more than 90 separate organ transplant programs.

ABOUT HKS

HKS Medical Information Systems, Inc. is a private company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1993 by Dr. Byers Shaw of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Hubert Hickman and Paul Kenyon Ph.D., HKS products improve the quality of patient care and operational efficiencies for its clients. Products include OTTR, the market leader in patient tracking software for organ transplant centers and OTTR-HLA, which is a comprehensive software system to support the patient management, reporting and regulatory needs of the HLA laboratory.