The Peter Copulos Cancer & Wellness Centre in Shepparton, Victoria, is Australia’s first public hospital to implement a cloud-first chemotherapy software solution. EpiSoft’s chemotherapy prescribing & management software won the bid in a competitive tender issued by Goulburn Valley Health (GV Health). A cornerstone of the project was the pioneering integration between EpiSoft and GV Health’s Patient Administration System in real-time using Secure Message Delivery (SMD) standards
GV Health is the first public hospital site for the Sydney based eHealth company. EpiSoft’s footprint in the cancer market has expanded rapidly since the launch of its cloud-based chemotherapy management module back in 2014. The company now has cancer customers across all six Australian states.
“We are delighted to have been selected by GV Health. It is a testament to the flexibility of our application that it has been adopted by such a diverse range of healthcare providers across every state in Australia, from home based chemo services to large tertiary hospitals, EpiSoft can support the most complex of workflows, delivering tangible efficiencies and safety enhancements” said EpiSoft co-founder & CEO, Jenny O’Neill.
GV Health’s cancer centre provides medical oncology services to the Goulburn Valley and the broader West Hume region. Prior to implementation, the staff at GV Health used manual processes to manage patient flow, chemotherapy prescribing, scheduling and administration. Faced with a growing workload due to a steadily increasing number of patients and the growing complexity of therapies, GV Health made the decision to digitise the cancer centre.
Since the implementation, staff at GV Health has reported improved efficiencies through streamlining the treatment booking and medication ordering process. Doctors can now access the patient’s full medical record even when working offsite, which is of particular benefit to those visiting medical officers based in Melbourne. Summaries of patients’ most recent treatments are displayed in user friendly layouts so that nursing staff can quickly review prior to administering treatment. EpiSoft’s application seamlessly links prescribing, medication ordering, scheduling and administration, so that changes at any point in the process flow through to the next step. According to GV Health’s project lead “EpiSoft has really helped improve our efficiency as a team in prescribing treatment regimens with confidence as they are based on the EVIQ protocols. This has improved our workflow…. this is the best complete oncology management platform I have worked on and the best thing is the team is open to suggestions and constructive criticisms which helps them make a better product. I would recommend episoft and it’s team any day.”
EpiSoft’s chemotherapy module is Australia’s first stand‐alone cloud‐based cancer and practice management application. The application combines ePrescribing, infusion management, cancer and other chronic disease specific data capture, smart ‘one click’ scheduling linked to the chemotherapy cycle and electronic billing for both outpatient and inpatient services. The application manages every step of the cancer workflow from diagnosis, ordering of compounded medications to scheduling, drug administration charting and clinical trial management. Another key point of difference is that the application centrally maintains all the Cancer Institute’s EviQ protocols so that healthcare providers can easily access and prescribe the latest, evidence-based, peer reviewed and best practice cancer treatments.
