Case StudiesSES-DF Case Study]
SES-DF is the Healthcare Secretary of the Federal District (DF) of Brazil. It manages a public health assistance network of the brazilian Federal District (DF) comprising:
In 2005, SES-DF commissioned a major automation project, named under the acronym “PMTUAS”, which involves software for managing hospitals, laboratories, healthcare services, billing, electronic patient recording and material management. Disclinc has been involved in the SES-DF project since project inception when Alphalinc was selected as the material management and control solution.This includes management of drug and non drug materials from procurement and distribution to final consumption.
According to the Federal District Government, the main objectives of the SES-DF Project were:
All of these objectives were achieved successfully.
Material control deployment started in 2007. This was a successful implementation due to Alphalinc’s flexible features, as well as its seamless web services integration processes.
The SES-DF IT personnel were fully involved with required customization using the flexible net-centric architecture of Alphalinc to quickly adjust the application to their needs, taking full advantage of Alphalincs technical capabilities.
Alphalinc went into live production mode in the Health Centers of the City of Gama in July 2007. It was quickly extended to the Health Centers of the City of Samambaia. Installation commenced at the main Gama Hospital at the beginning of September 2007.
The users easily learned how to use the new application, after very few training sessions. Alphalinc was considered user-friendly and its technical characteristics allowed its implementation in an incremental approach, maintaining the old system while installing the new.
This effort has added integration complexities (already coupled), since TrakCare will still be used in the other 16 hospitals of the SES-DF network, while Alphalinc is running only at one hospital and related health centers, adding the other hospitals on a step by step basis.
The following Alphalinc features are in use:
The target enhancements aimed by SES-DF regarding the material control were:
At the end of the implementation process the system will connect 149 healthcare units in the Federal District region – including the biggest hospitals as well as the small rural patient care centers - allowing the regional centers to exchange information between them on a real-time basis, enhancing the overall process of material and medical supply management in the whole region.
The main benefits of the system as perceived by the SES customer are:
Australian-based Trak Health, an InterSystems company, is the technical partner of Disclinc in the SES Project. It develops and markets TrakCare, a revolutionary Web-based healthcare information system that rapidly delivers patient-centric care solutions and electronic patient record benefits.
Trak Health is a multinational company specializing in hospital and clinical lab management information systems. The TraCare system includes capabilities ranging from scheduling appointments at basic healthcare units to the complete management of any community patient data. Alphalinc is fully integrated with TrakCare and provides a perfectly complementary, completely automated solution for patient care and material control.
In Brasilia, TrakHealth started a partnership with Disclinc that will positively impact its presence in the 25 countries where it is currently positioned, including the United Kingdom, China, Japan and India.
The Health Community project, as SES is, is responsible for delivering IT solutions and fully integrating the entire healthcare network by both TrakHealth and Disclinc in a winner partner relationship. Both systems are fully integrated to each other allowing end-to-end control over the material and medical supplies flow.
According to the TrakHealth Country Manager in Brazil, Fernando Vogt, the project is closely aligned with the worldwide investment carried out by the company in Community Health Network concepts. By providing information technology and integrating specific regional units, it is possible to fully control the generation, maintenance, and distribution of all clinical, health, and administrative information for a community - whether in a city, a state, or even a country. It consists of combining administrative, demographic, and clinical patient data, enabling the integrated management of a specific health service community.
To support these solutions, TrakHealth and Disclinc rely on technology from InterSystems, an innovation-driven company since its foundation. The company has a high-performance object database and application development environment. They also provide a unique platform for integration, enabling the creation of health community networks in a quick and flexible way, while aiming at preserving existing investments. Another innovative InterSystems product is HealthShare, a technological platform that allows large-scale multi-organizational sharing of health information.
Currently, the SES Project is one of the largest healthcare cases in the public area in the world.
The Brazilian Federal District Healthcare Secretary has faced, for many years, many management problems, including the lack of medical supplies, material 
losses and delays, and inconsistent patient care.
With Disclinc and TrakHealth joint solutions, SES was able to reduce the impact of most of these problems. What was the final result? An integrated, complete and efficient management of material and medical supplies, resulting in a reduction of many millions of Reais to the Government and, more importantly, a better customer service quality for 2.0 million adults, children and old people in the Federal District region of Brazil.
After Alphalinc, the management of medical supplies will never be the same! SES is a ground breaking project in the public healthcare area.
