Whole Hospital Information System (WHIS)
“WHIS supports
clinicians in their
essential, frequently
life-saving functions
in Camp Bastion
and provides the
key management
tools needed by
commanders.
Logica’s rapid
response helped us
deliver this urgent
operational
requirement in a
very short time.”
Richard Chapman,
Programme Director,
UK Ministry of Defence
Camp Bastion is in the middle of a remote foreign country and is essential to the success of
operations in Helmand Province. Wounds and diseases are a real threat to the troops operating in
Afghanistan and medical care needs to be a top priority, to ensure that anyone wounded or sick can
return to the field, as soon as possible.
They needed efficient software to support their activities, including patient administration and
electronic patient record systems. There was a drive to improve basic administration functions,
focusing on the patient needs.
The challenge
Camp Bastion needed an efficient IT system that supported the doctors in their work, while securing
and managing patient data. The system needed to be easy to use as the hospital staff work under
great pressure and are rotated every three or six months. Training was a crucial requirement to
ensure that the staff were able to use the Whole Hospital Information System (WHIS) effectively.
The system needed to be useable by all medical staff, including foreign doctors who may not have
had much training in the applications. Given that many situations are time critical, the system must
be up-to-date, flexible and must provide the necessary information quickly. The information system
had to be exceptionally robust and capable of coping with the high levels of demand.
Our answer
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) appointed Logica to deliver WHIS under the most challenging
conditions at the Camp Bastion field hospital in Helmand Province. We ran a competitive
procurement for the MoD, as a result of which System C was appointed to provide its award-winning
Medway PAS/EPR software. Logica acted as the prime systems integrator and contractor for the
project.
The Medway PAS/EPR software was tailored to meet the needs of the MoD. The scope of WHIS
includes bed management, intensive care, order communications and reporting systems to
supplement the hospital systems. We also provided pre-deployment training and support for
operational medics and nurses, both in the UK and in Afghanistan. This prepares the new staff to
work efficiently from the first day.
We achieved this within four months and initial operational capability was declared in January 2011.
For full operational capability we integrated WHIS with other medical applications already installed at
Camp Bastion to provide further clinical support. This was completed in Jan 2012. This will ensure
that the MoD continues to provide the best treatment to UK military personnel and its NATO allies
based in Afghanistan.
Key benefits
- Efficient IT system
replacing paper-based
system.
- Well-trained medical
staff.
- Medical staff can
spend more time
with patients,
reducing bureaucratic
administration.
- The robust and
flexible system can
cope with extreme or
unusual situations.
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