Business Commuication Capabilities.

Siemens Business Communication Systems, Inc. has written a prescription for health care providers trying to find a remedy for outdated information systems, information overload and poor communications capabilities.

Siemens' health care intranet solution features consulting services, an information delivery system via push technology and Web-based paging, and hardware and software. The software runs on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT.

Elizabeth General Medical Center (EGMC) in Elizabeth, N.J., and Northeast Health Systems in Beverly, Mass., are implementing the package. In each case, IS wanted to build an intranet but didn't have the in-house resources to do so.

EGMC expects big changes as a result of its intranet. "We'll be making the intranet the front end to the electronic patient record. Once clinicians have access to a patient's electronic record, they can make better decisions and get better outcomes, like reduced hospital stays," says Vijay Sontay, CIO at EGMC.

Plans aren't as ambitious out of the gate at Northeast Health Systems, given that the outsourcing firm it uses for clinical systems has not yet Web-enabled its offerings.