NetSafe Updates and Protects Critical Patient Data in the Event of System Downtimes, Enabling the Hospital to Provide Uninterrupted Patient Care

Natick, MA – April 28, 2010 – To ensure accessibility to current patient data during a system downtime, Markham Stouffville Hospital in Ontario, Canada implemented NetSafe, Interbit Data’s downtime protection and business continuance software.  NetSafe automates the process of maintaining up-to-date patient information and records, allowing Markham Stouffville Hospital to save time spent each day on printing, manually sorting and delivering the information across its two sites.  Having the most recent data available on its patients during downtime helps the hospital preserve patient safety and the delivery of uninterrupted care.

“NetSafe business continuance impacts organizational efficiencies because having immediate access to up-to-the-minute information during downtime allows our staff to process patients quicker and treat them in a timely manner,” stated Tim Pemberton, director of IT and communications at Markham Stouffville Hospital.  “Having timely and accurate information ensures patient safety while having immediate access to that information allows staff to improve the level of patient care.”

A one-minute video on the downtime protection and business continuance benefits of NetSafe is available at: http://interbitdata.com/business-continuance/netsafe/

Prior to implementing NetSafe downtime protection and business continuance, Markham Stouffville Hospital refreshed its patient data every four hours.  Now, NetSafe automatically updates the data on an hourly basis, and the IT department no longer needs to print and distribute the data as it is readily available on 50 “downtime computers” stationed throughout the various areas of the organization.

“NetSafe also helps make the information retrieval more efficient by making it access-driven,” added Pemberton.  “Each area of the hospital gets only the data that they need in that area and on only the patients it is working with.  This improved documentation access process also helps to ensure privacy of patient info.”

Over the first two months after implementing NetSafe, Markham Stouffville Hospital conducted a network refresh that required several downtimes in that period, each lasting 8 – 12 hours.  NetSafe was used during all of these downtimes to provide downtime documentation and enable the hospital to continue providing quality treatment to patients without interruption.  During downtimes, clinical areas as well as admissions save time because they have immediate access to recent data and can update their data automatically.  By freeing up staff time, NetSafe allows them to be more efficient and use that time for more important matters.

“Unplanned downtimes occur rarely, but we need to show that the business can continue and the hospital can continue to provide care in the absence of the IT system.  NetSafe is excellent and very useful for business continuity,” affirmed Pemberton.  “With just the amount of time and effort saved by the IT staff, NetSafe has easily paid for itself 10 times over.”

NetSafe automatically captures and preserves patient information and reports from the healthcare information system (HCIS) on any location on the network to make critical data available for lookup, review or printing whenever needed.  Data elements are automatically extracted from the captured reports and the reports are stored at locations throughout the network at regular intervals to ensure the most recent patient data is available. Data is encrypted to maintain confidentiality.

With NetSafe, users can define and capture an unlimited number of reports and rules, scan reports for locations to automatically deliver data to the right location and recipient, and store data at an unlimited number of locations throughout the network.  Data is indexed for easy access to specific information. Reports can be sent to multiple locations to ensure data availability and improve staff efficiency.  Users can view report data online, removing the need to print the reports, and they can search reports for individual patient data.  NetSafe’s comprehensive logging capability allows users to create an audit trail.

About Markham Stouffville HospitalMarkham Stouffville Hospital is a progressive multi-site community hospital with leading diagnostic services and medical and surgical care focused on patient needs in its rapidly growing communities. The Hospital’s 275 physicians and 1,700 staff serve the residents of the Towns of Markham, Whitchurch-Stouffville and Uxbridge and a catchment area that also draws from North Scarborough and East Durham, a total population of nearly 300,000 people. Markham Stouffville Hospital serves its communities through two fully-accredited hospitals, one in Markham and the other in Uxbridge. 

About Interbit Data
Founded in 1997 and named to the 2009 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing companies, Interbit Data helps healthcare organizations deliver better, more consistent patient care with secure, reliable and cost-effective software solutions that improve operational efficiency.  The company’s information distribution products deliver information securely over the Internet in multiple formats, such as fax, print, email, encrypted file or HL7 message format, and integrate it easily into physicians’ practice EMRs.  Interbit Data’s business continuance products give healthcare providers continuous access to patient data in the event of a network or system outage.  Interbit Data products are used by more than 650 MEDITECH^® customers worldwide.  For more information about Interbit Data and its NetSolutions products, visit the company Website at www.interbitdata.com.