Digitally Enabled Healthcare Transformation

The digitisation of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) has meant better quality healthcare for millions of South Africans. The national rollout is one of the biggest IT systems of its kind in the world and recognised globally as a leading example of successful digital transformation in healthcare.

Pathology as a critical service

When a doctor is treating a patient there is a very high probability that a blood test is necessary to make a diagnosis. When providing healthcare to over 50 million people, that equates to 110,000 requests and 600,000 individual tests every day from 400 government hospitals and 3,800 clinics. And because the NHLS is the sole provider of pathology services to SA’s public health system, they play a critical role in making sure that patients get the right treatment.

In order to roll-out a centralised and real-time pathology test processing and results system for the entire public health service, the NHLS had to enlist the expertise and support of leading technology and implementation partners.

Collaborating for success

The NHLS chose InterSystems as its technology provider because of its track record to successfully manage large volumes of data in various health applications throughout the world.

“In addition to having the right technology in place, we knew that rolling out the largest laboratory IT system in Africa needed the support of a strong and capable local prime contractor and implementation partner. We chose Health Systems Technologies (HST) because it has a national footprint and track record of delivery in skills transfer and enablement,” said NHLS CEO, Dr Karmani Chetty.

HST, who has been enabling the digitisation of healthcare services in South Africa since the year 2000, provided always-on support to the NHLS by way of service desk support, training, implementation, project management and skills transfer to NHLS employees and roundthe-clock monitoring of the application.

What it means for patient care

The rollout has had numerous benefits for patients but most importantly, patients are getting better care because doctors are getting the information they need to treat patients quickly and reliably. On a larger scale, the digitisation of the NHLS paves the way for a connected healthcare system that facilitates patient-centred care and a better patient experience.

The NHLS is now the single biggest and most valuable healthcare data resource in the country and because of TrakCare Lab’s and the NHLS’s data warehouse analytics capabilities, it is now possible to analyse volumes of data to understand population health better.

“Our journey to digital transformation has spanned 10 years and it’s been an incredible success. We are proud to be considered a world-class example of technology installation and implementation whereby we not only improved our service but also the skills of our employees. In all, I believe we have made massive strides towards a safer health system that provides quality services and delivers on the National Health Department’s mandate of ‘a long and healthy life for all citizens’,” concluded Dr Chetty.