Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/260953
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2014 3 Mater Dei gets new patient administration system Engaging Dalli advisor 'the right decision' says minister MIRIAM DALLI A new database for patient data was launched yesterday by Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia, at Mater Dei Hospital. The clinical patient administra- tion system (CPAS) integrating in- formation from primary, second- ary and tertiary levels of healthcare was devised by the ministry and Mater Dei Hospital employees in collaboration with different health practitioners led by IT consultant Mark Sammut. The CPAS integrates the differ- ent levels of healthcare provided in both Malta and Gozo in one sys- tem, across hospitals, residential homes and healthcare centres. "The CPAS is the gateway for a coordinated health system, the key for more accessibility, patient safety, accountability... a patient- centric healthcare system," Far- rugia said. Describing it as the backbone technology of the national health system, the minister said the giant leap from an old patient adminis- tration system – whose software licence expired in 2013 – to the new clinical system was made in just a few months. Farrugia said the new system would contain larger amounts of data and infor- mation at a rate "50 times bigger than the old one". Work on the CPAS started in Ju- ly 2013, and by mid-January built, tested upon, and implemented with workers trained to use it. "I am very proud to say that every- thing was done in-house, thanks to the abilities of a team that de- veloped a system for the country's healthcare needs," Farrugia said. The minister did not divulge the exact cost of creating the software, saying that the "in-house effort" came at "no additional cost". The CPAS is a Windows-based software that allows doctors and nurses to insert patient data in the system, and create a patient track- ing system. According to Mater Dei CEO Joe Caruana, the system will help doc- tors take "quicker decisions" as it provides them with the patient's history in one click. "Mater Dei needed it and, in terms of IT pro- gramming, it has put us on a 21st century platform." The change from paper to elec- tronic format will provide hospital staff with quicker and easier access to data, saving time in the search and delivery of patient files. The old patient files stored in Marsa are now being scanned and inserted in the system as PDF files. The CPAS allows healthcare professionals to update a patient's medical history, accessing previ- ous data and incorporates medi- cal tests. Clinical notes will also be included. Once the rollout of the e-ID cards is completed, the system would enable the provision of a se- cure e-prescription service. Mark Sammut said the CPAS automatically triggers an SMS or email alert to doctors or consult- ants when a patient's file has been updated. It also includes an outpa- tient specialised tracking. A new feature which didn't exist in the old system is the introduc- tion of analyses for frequent pa- tients and length of stay warnings. The third phase, dependent on other reforms within the health- care provision system, includes medicinal stock control, the abil- ity to carry e-prescription serv- ices based on entitlement cards – which will be incorporated in the new smart ID cards – a bed man- agement module and a discharge system or letter notifying when a patients has undergone an opera- tion. The ministry is also envisaging a system whereby the triage system is carried out on the ambulance, while the patient is on his way to the emergency department. With the use of a tablet, para- medics would compile the infor- mation – generally relayed once the patient arrives at the A&E – beforehand. HEALTH Minister Godfrey Farrugia has defended the appointment of Mark Sammut, an IT consultant, to the health ministry after it was revealed that Sam- mut was also an advisor engaged with John Dalli, the former minister whom the Labour government engaged to re- view Mater Dei Hospital's internal work practices. Farrugia said Sammut's appointment to devise the new clinical patient admin- istration system was not connected with the engagement of the former European Commissioner for health as consultant to the government. Sammut is a former IT adviser to John Dalli, having worked for him in Brussels. He was later engaged by Farrugia as an eHealth advisor to devise the new clinical patient administration system for Mater Dei Hospital. News of Sammut's engagement sur- faced in the media shortly after Dalli, a former Nationalist minister, was ap- pointed by the new Labour government to serve as the prime minister's consult- ant on health matters. Questioned by journalists during yes- terday's launch of the CPAS, Farrugia said he engaged Sammut "during the first days of me becoming a minister". Farrugia said he knew Sammut's fam- ily in Zebbug, one of his constituencies where he served as family doctor for sev- eral years, and that John Dalli's appoint- ment came later in the day. "I see people's abilities and their moti- vation. The decisions I took in engaging these consultants are now bearing fruit, including cost savings for the country. His [Sammut's] relationship with John Dalli had nothing to do with it," Farrugia said. "I engaged a person who's good at what he does and we really should be lauding him for what he did. Looking back, this was the right decision to take." According to a parliamentary question tabled in December, Sammut had been paid a total of €17,807 since 16 June 2013. The question on Sammut's salary was raised by Nationalist MP Chris Said. Sammut was appointed as consultant by the Ministry for Health with a basic salary of €2,359 per month. His contract also allows for an expense allowance, an expertise allowance, mobile phone and car allowances and bonus. The expertise allowance amounts to €769, although in June this allowance amounted to €1,359. New hospital software will allow doctors and nurses to have access to consolidated patient history across all levels of healthcare MATTHEW VELLA THE Parliamentary Secretariat for Local Governance and Culture has forked out the money for the cost of deploying local wardens to the sister island over the weekend, in a bid to have them issue less enforcement tickets to traffic offenders. Although sounding like the govern- ment is paying wardens not to issue contravention citations, MaltaToday has been told that this weekend's re- ductions on the Gozo Channel ferry – an initiative for the Valentine's Day week to have more travellers spend a weekend on the island – are usu- ally "an excuse to have wardens issue more tickets during the increase in traffic to the island". Parliamentary secretary Jose Her- rera has issued a White Paper that proposes to set up a new central unit to deploy local wardens, rather than having local councils pay private companies to deploy the wardens themselves. Herrera says that local councils have been using the warden system to issue more fines in the face of dwindling revenues, and because of the cost of financing the private de- ployment of wardens. A government source said: "We don't want local councils to use the Gozo Valentine's weekend as an excuse to have wardens prowling around and issuing as many contra- vention tickets as they can, just to boost their coffers. We want them to provide an educational role and guide weekend travellers accord- ingly." The parliamentary secretariat has paid for the costs of the wardens usually deployed by the Gozo Re- gional Council – which groups all local councils on the island – for the weekend, and instructed the war- dens not to issue any more tickets than strictly necessary. "If the government wants more people to take their business to Gozo over the weekend, we shouldn't al- low this increased traffic to be used as an excuse for wardens to fire off tickets left, right and centre," the source said. Malta's local warden system is in the process of being reformed, 14 years after it was first introduced, and the parliamentary secretary for local councils wants a "fairer and more transparent" system to reduce costs by 20%. The key change is granting the current management committee that runs the local enforcement sys- tem, the power to cre- ate a centralised unit to enforce the laws delegated to the five regional com- mittees. But this means ef- fectively taking on the administration of local wardens, from the private companies cur- rently providing the manpower for the local councils. Herrera's White Paper says that local councils were not getting much cash from the local enforcement system, be- cause they had to pay the private firms running it for them. And that means that the system can only survive if wardens issue more tickets. Even private op- erators admit that speed cameras are not making as much cash "because mo- torists have got used to the sys- tem". "The system has entered a vi- cious circle, and it depends on more traffic fines being is- sued, otherwise the system crumbles," the White Paper says. "The system should reflect people's aspirations... it needs a serious cost- cutting exercise." Gozo wardens not issuing tickets for Valentine's weekend Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia (centre) and IT consultant Mark Sammut (right)