Bumrungrad's Hospital 2000 Information System

Abstract

The case describes the implementation of the Hospital 2000 information system by the Bumrungrad Hospital Public Company Limited (Bumrungrad), Asia's largest private hospital. It describes in length the need for implementing an advanced hospital information system by Bumrungrad, the system implementation process and the system & network architecture. It also discusses the challenges faced while implementing Hospital 2000 IS and elaborates the benefits reaped by Bumrungrad after the successful implementation of the system.

"We are a service business and people come to private healthcare in Thailand because they expect efficiency and top quality. Information technology has always been a way to provide that. Hospital 2000 helps us get patients registered quickly, helps get their pharmacy done, helps put information at peoples' fingertips when and where they need it; helps us get the bill out accurately and quickly and that helps us to be very competitive in the very competitive healthcare market here in Thailand."

- Curt Schroeder, CEO, Bumrungrad Hospital.

"Hospital 2000 is a key attribute helping Bumrungrad Hospital to maintain world class standing in medical care and service. Top quality healthcare is about getting the right information to the right caregiver at the right time and Hospital 2000 does this in world-class style. The fully computerized medical record insures that all information is available to the medical team and the service level, speed and efficiency is enjoyed by our 750,000 patients each year."

- Curt Schroeder, CEO, Bumrungrad Hospital.

In January 2003, Intelligent Enterprise Asia, a leading IT magazine in Asia, announced the Intelligent 20 awards recognizing the top 20 IT-savvy companies in the continent. In its third year, the award was given to Asian companies, which employed innovative IT solutions to enhance operational excellence and customer service capabilities. Judges from the world's 10 leading consulting firms including IDC, Accenture and Gartner, selected the winners.

Like most of the IS deployed by Asia's leading hospitals in the late 1990s, Bumrungrad's system mainly addressed the needs of the accounting and billing departments. The hospital's IT operations were scattered across four systems, running various mutually incompatible applications. This meant Bumrungrad had to put more staff on board for maintenance. Due to the incompatible applications, hospital staff could not access the latest patient data quickly, causing inconvenience

Hence, Bumrungrad was looking out for an advanced hospital IS which could address several needs at one go. This included simplifying its internal operation (primarily billing) by connecting all applications from the pharmacy to eating outlets to the patients' medical treatment, so that consolidated medical bills could be generated instantly.

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        Case Code   ITSY041
   Case Length    14 Pages
              Period    1998-2003
 Organization     Bumrungrad's Hospital
        Pub Date     2004
Teaching Note    Not Available
     Countries    Thailand
      Industry    Healthcare

Issues

The case is structured in a way as to enable the students to:

Understand the need for a leading private hospital to adopt an information system.

Get an insight into the kind of challenges which a hospital could face while implementing the system.

Develop an in-depth understanding on the implementation process of a corporate information system including data conversion, training and hardware & software implementation.

Appreciate the benefits of implementing an organization-wide corporate information system in a large hospital.

Bumrungrad Hospital, Information System, IT Project Implementation, Electronic Medical Record, IT in Healthcare, Benefits of IT and Picture Archive Communication Systems.

Please note:

This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.