Red Hat Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions, announced that Y3 Technologies, a Singapore-based software development company, has developed Asia's first open source hospital bed management system. The solution, which is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss Enterprise Middleware, is the result of a collaborative initiative for open source software development initiated by Red Hat under the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's (IDA's) Infocomm Local Industry Upgrading (iLIUP) programme. The Bed Efficiency, Administration and Management (BEAM) system has been deployed in Mount Alvernia Hospital.
The BEAM system uses wireless and mobile technologies to track patient admissions and bed occupancy status. The system provides real-time information on patient admissions, housekeeping status and bed allocations for the front office, admissions department and nursing wards. The system also proactively notifies the housekeeping department of patients who will be discharged throughout the day. With the BEAM system, Mount Alvernia Hospital has cut bed turnaround time to less than 30 minutes, and increased the efficiency of this critical function by 30 percent.
Bed capacity, bed demand forecasting and resource planning information is made available via an easy-to-use dashboard. From the dashboard, Mount Alvernia's management team can monitor key performance indicators, such as hospital bed occupancy rates, average length of hospital stay, bed demand projections, and time spent on housekeeping duties.
"Red Hat is proud to have worked with Y3 Technologies under the iLIUP programme to develop a local, world class healthcare industry solution that is now live at Mount Alvernia Hospital," said Gery Messer, President, Red Hat Asia Pacific/Japan. "The BEAM solution illustrates the power of the Red Hat collaboration model which brings together developers, users and open source experts to accelerate software innovation. Red Hat is focused on encouraging software innovation and increasing the availability of local open source applications."
Mount Alvernia Hospital selected the BEAM solution because it is based on affordable open source technologies, and it integrated easily with the hospital's existing IT infrastructure and resources and ensured vendor independence. In addition, the solution has a rich interface architecture and uses the JBoss Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform. This rich interface architecture allows for the design of an intuitive user interface that utilizes Web 2.0 technologies, which gives users quick access to the information that they need to perform their jobs more efficiently. The SOA platform enables reusable code, faster application development, and an IT infrastructure that can react quickly to business changes.
"Implementing an open source solution is low risk as open source is now well-supported by major IT vendors. Open source technology today is stable and mature, and also very cost-effective," said Fong Yong Choi, MIS Manager of Mount Alvernia Hospital.
James Loo, Chief Operating Officer of Y3 Technologies, recognized great value in this collaboration model. "The hospital provided the healthcare domain knowledge while Y3 and Red Hat provided the technology expertise. Together, we created a flexible, efficient solution that breaks new ground in the healthcare industry," said Loo.
The BEAM solution comprises Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, Oracle databases, and Java Platform Enterprise Edition 2, running on a virtualized IBM PowerSeries 2 P6-570 server. BEAM has been implemented in several 24-hour operations at Mount Alvernia Hospital, which include its nursing and housekeeping departments, and other crucial, high-traffic departments including the front office and the admissions department.
