Westmead trial could be on COAG agenda

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's No 1 priority is better run hospitals and when he meets state and territory leaders at the COAG meeting in Melbourne on Thursday, December 20, a report based on a trial at The Children's Hospital at Westmead on the use of IT to improve staff productivity may be on the agenda, in the hope of attracting funding.
In 2006, a trial of wireless voice and data communication involving 80 clinicians was conducted at the hopsital. The clinicians liked it and trial results showed significant savings in patient waiting and treatment times.
Aegis Consulting Australia, engaged to independently assess the economic value of the results and prepare a report for NSW Health, which along with state Treasury, were impressed but could not fund the permanent application of the technoloogy, which Aegis found would cost $4 million but deliver productivity improvements worth $35 million over four years.