HIQ Celebrates 5th Birthday

After five years operating as a joint venture with Capital and Coast DHB, HIQ is now solely focused on improving IT services at Taranaki DHB and in the wider New Zealand health sector.

HIQ was created in 2004, when the two DHBs set up a five-year agreement to work together to deliver IT services. The joint venture allowed them to share resources, expertise, experience and the costs of information technology, infrastructure and systems.
With changing business needs, the two boards have now decided to focus on the IT needs of their own DHBs. This has resulted in HIQ becoming a fully owned subsidiary of Taranaki DHB, with the head office in New Plymouth and an office in Wellington.

Above: From left: Susan Zhang, Jo Neal, Cheng Xiao, and Patrick Mulligan, have been with HIQ since its inception five years ago. Absent is Darren Douglass.

HIQ’s ongoing focus will be to support Taranaki DHB and the New Zealand health sector as the considerable challenges in providing information services across the NZ health sector are addressed.
HIQ Transition Manager Darrin Hackett says there is a need to contain costs and to make the most effective and efficient use of limited resources across the DHB and the wider health sector. This is a key focus of HIQ going into the next financial year.

He says HIQ has several employees who were around at the formation of the joint venture, and are now contributing to the remodelled organisation.These staff members have provided a consistent contribution to HIQ and its customers, Darrin says. “There has also been a steady influx of talented employees who are keen to make a difference in the way health services are delivered using information technology.”
He says the next five years will be full of challenges and change. “HIQ and its staff are looking forward to being a key part of delivering on the need for change across the health sector.” HIQ has a service delivery model that allows other DHBs, Primary Health Organisations and health service providers to develop shared business services and clinical services arrangements.

An example of HIQ collaboration across the health sector is the implementing of a national IT system for improving health care for the elderly, frail and disabled.

Since the restructuring of HIQ in July 2009, the HIQ project team has tackled many projects. They include a new bar-coded system in TDHB Stores, an IT system for school dental therapists, a medicines reconciliation project, the introduction of electronic viewing stations to replace traditional x-ray films and a wireless upgrade in Hawera and Taranaki Base hospitals.

HIQ is also upgrading the MHSmart System used by the Mental Health Department, the Cognos reporting platform for operational reports and the Orion electronic discharge summaries system, as well as implementing a new service delivery tool to address the needs of Taranaki DHB and primary care users.

A key project underway is the Referral Management/ACC project, which will significantly improve the way referrals are done within the DHB, and to and from external health providers.

The overall focus of HIQ is to facilitate collaboration across the New Zealand health sector IT service providers to enable enhanced patient-centre care.