Healthcare system selects enterprise integration software to bring together information, improve decision-making
Westboro, MA — March 22, 2005 — Scripps Health, a not-for-profit, San Diego-based healthcare system, has selected the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite as a core component of its clinical data warehouse.
Scripps has changed the way it makes health care decisions by using more complete, timely clinical information. The Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite enables this new business initiative by breaking down organizational information silos and bringing together clinical and financial patient information in a common repository, Scripps said.
Variations in clinical treatment can dramatically affect the quality of patient care and have a fiscal impact on hospitals. With the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite Scripps can access both clinical information, such as patient admissions and visits, lab results, procedures and discharges, as well as financial information, including eligibility, and claims and remittances data, to better understand how healthcare procedures can influence outcomes and affect operational performance.
"Ascential Software helps us to understand the total picture — clinically and from a business standpoint — by harvesting information trapped in silo legacy systems," said Jean Balgrosky, chief information officer of Scripps. "One of the things that impresses us about the Ascential Software solution is functionality that goes beyond data extraction and transformation by also providing statistically powerful ways for data cleansing and matching. Ascential Software enables us to build a process improvement engine for doctors and nurses, creating a clinical and business intelligence system."
The enterprise data warehouse, which is being developed by Hewlett-Packard (HP), will provide a single, clinical archive that Scripps will use to perform data analysis across a broad spectrum of data derived from multiple systems, including electronic medical records and cost accounting systems. Scripps also tapped HP to lead the product evaluation process, selecting Ascential Software for its data integration software. Precision BI, Scripps' standard for business intelligence analytics, will be used as the analytical and reporting tool for the clinical warehouse.
One selection criterion for Scripps was Ascential Software's ability to support an extensible data model. Scripps had niche tools that allowed one-to-one replication of data from legacy systems. However, the healthcare network plans to eventually bring in all its major applications into the data warehouse project, so it was important to have a technology with flexibility and scalability to handle diverse, growing volumes of healthcare information, resulting from data-intensive initiatives, most notably HIPAA and the electronic medical record.
In additional, by using Ascential Software solutions Scripps will be able to extract data from some of its multiple legacy systems, load it into the new data warehouse and, over time, discontinue use of the outdated applications and reduce costly maintenance charges.
"Healthcare organizations collect massive volumes of data electronically, but this information is typically trapped in numerous systems and databases," said Helen Gurevich, director of healthcare solutions at Ascential Software. "Scripps Health's initiative to unlock the tremendous clinical and business value by breaking down the data stovepipes and seeing data in new ways to improve decision-making make it a true innovator among healthcare providers."
Founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, today Scripps Health annually treats 478,000 patients. It has more than 2,600 affiliated physicians and 10,500 employees spread across five acute care campuses, home health care services and an ambulatory care network of clinics, physicians' offices and outpatient centers.
Recognized as a world leader in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, Scripps is in the forefront of prevention, medical innovation, clinical research and technology. Recent accolades include: Best Hospital in San Diego, San Diego Union-Tribune Readers' Poll, (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004); 100 Most Wired Health Systems, 2004, Hospitals & Health Networks; Best Employer for Employees Over 50, AARP, 2004; Best Local Large Employer, 2004, SHRM, San Diego.
