Rhapsody® Integration Engine to Future-proof Its Architecture with Modern and Flexible Interfaces
Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota (Children’s) is one of the largest pediatric health systems in the United States, serving children throughout the Upper Midwest at two free-standing hospitals, twelve primary and specialty-care clinics and six rehabilitation sites.
An independent and not-for-profit system since 1924, Children’s maintains its longstanding commitment to the community to improve children’s health by providing high-quality, family-centered pediatric services and advancing those efforts through research and education. An award-winning health system, Children’s is regularly ranked by US News & World Report as a top children’s hospital and by The Leapfrog Group for its quality and efficiency.
An integration challenge
Children’s was using a legacy integration engine to exchange information across multiple systems. Once it was determined that the product was being sunsetted, the organization decided to evaluate other integration engine solutions. As one of four pediatric hospitals in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, and red-lining in terms of capacity, the organization was eager to identify an integration solution that it could implement quickly and deliver data in the exact same format it had been using to allow for a smooth transition.
In searching for an integration engine partner, Children’s also wanted to future-proof its existing architecture by adding modern and flexible interfaces and setting standards to match its existing workflows. Children’s needed a solution to help migrate, manage and streamline message exchange between eighty departmental interfaces including ADT, orders, results and billing for radiology, laboratory, surgery and pharmacy departments.
A Powerful Back-end Integration Solution
Children’s had adapted to working with an integration technology
that was slow and cumbersome, so represented a paradigm shift for the organization.
Children’s selected Rhapsody Integration Engine based on Rhapsody health solutions turnkey methodology for legacy conversion projects and the technology’s capabilities:
• Quick to install, fast to configure, simple to deploy and easy to use
• Allows for real-time connectivity to Children’s ninety-eight
different connection points; streamlining processes, reducing
operational costs and increasing network reliability
• Ability to build and deploy integrations in hours, without the need
for advanced development skills, using Rhapsody’s drag-and-drop and wizard-based tools
• Ease of upgrades
• Rhapsody bundled software with training and implementation
services, providing the Children’s IT team with the resources they
needed to take control of the integration project and keep that
valuable knowledge within the organization.
Rhapsody bundled software with training and implementation
services, providing the Children’s IT team with the resources they
needed to take control of the integration project and keep that
valuable knowledge within the organization.
Increased Productivity, Enhanced Workflow
Since implementing Rhapsody Integration Engine 2010, Children’s continues to see increased productivity across health information management, lab, pharmacy, and radiology departments. It has become simpler to pinpoint where data flow and transaction issues are occurring and to address them quickly.
The integration engine enables Children’s to streamline information sharing across 98 connection points, reducing the amount of resources needed to maintain interfaces. By eliminating software maintenance costs and resource time spent on non-strategic systems, Children’s has also seen cost savings of $100K+/year.
Rhapsody Integration Engine has also enabled Children’s to add a third server to support its disaster recovery preparedness; by creating additional redundancy, the hospital is able to ensure the safety of electronic patient data. Reports are now 100% accurate and created in the custom formats needed, eliminating the need for additional reporting resources.
The solution’s unit testing framework has also accelerated the Children’s development and testing cycles. Rhapsody Integration Engine ensures effortless integration between Children’s hospitals and its ambulatory locations, acting as a mapping and translating mediator between previously incompatible systems. Messages are reliably and accurately delivered regardless of the format or transportation type required. The platform’s drag-and-drop configuration allows complex routing and processing to be easily configured, and its powerful web-based monitoring tools enable fast and efficient resolution of issues and/or reprocessing of messages.
By using Rhapsody Integration Engine, they were able to successfully streamline message exchange between 80 departmental interfaces including ADT, orders, results and billing for radiology, laboratory, surgery and pharmacy departments.
Rhapsody Integration Engine was the clear choice, having been both top in functionality and price point, while consistently rated as a top solution by KLAS and top marks from other customers.
Joe Pinotti, Interface engineer, Children’s Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota
