Client Success Story

Metro South Health’s vision of lifelong patient wellness demanded a new model where data —accurate, well-protected data —was available in the right place at the right time. They needed expert guidance on developing a sound, well-researched plan to implement Australia’s first health-service-wide digital hospital program. A team with the right skills mix and a unified mission, combined with an integrated digital system and electronic medical records, would allow:

• Faster diagnoses
• Greater visibility of patient information at bedside
• Improved accuracy of monitoring, clinical decision making and prescribing
• Improved staff engagement and outcomes for patients

Metro South Health’s Gartner executive partner (EP) worked alongside key stakeholders to develop and execute a successful long-term engagement plan that maintained the focus on safe and timely patient care. In addition, Gartner experts provided real-life insights, tips and techniques, and lessons learned from other clients around the world who had faced similar challenges.

Gartner-led workshops and coaching helped staff understand the value proposition of the program and manage the change. Gartner research, tools and peer engagement provided relevant insights and guidance on which technologies and skills to invest in and assisted with building business cases and reaching executive consensus. Gartner expertise provided a knowledge base, strategic framework and timetable to complete the digital transformation.

The decision to digitize one hospital at a time created a blueprint and template to roll out to the five hospitals in the system, and today all Metro South Health hospitals are fully digital. The new paperless environment has streamlined services for patients and allowed staff to deliver improved care. Utilizing Gartner product and best-practice research up front allowed Metro South Health to save up to three months in implementation time. By fully understanding the risks and how to mitigate them, the provider saved an additional six months of time as a result of the preparation and setup support from Gartner.

• Engagement with Gartner EP and contextualized, expert-provided research
• Peer engagement and best practices and benchmarking
• Technology investment and vendor engagement plans to support the digital hospital strategy