A Case Study on

Bumrungrad’s
Hospital 2000 Information
System
You are Curt Schroeder, CEO. How did
the HIS 2000 help You?

Robin Kataria
We are a service business and people

come to private healthcare in Thailand

because they expect efficiency and top
quality. Information technology has
always been a way to provide that.
Hospital 2000 helps us get patients
registered quickly , helps get their
pharmacy done, helps put information
at peoples' fingertips when and where
they need it; helps us get the bill out
accurately and quickly and that helps
us to be very competitive in the very
competitive healthcare market here in
Bumrungradhospital was originally
established as a 200 bed hospital
facility in 1980. Can you trace its
growth upto 1997.?
Aanchal
Jointly owned by Bangkok Bank and

Sophonpanichfamily one of
Thailand's leading business family.
Cost 90 million Thai Baht.
Went Public in 1989

Shifted to the new facility located at

the cnetre of Bangkok. Constructed

at an estimated cost of $110 mn,
the 12-ffloot building had 554 beds
and 21 operation theaters.
It had 600 physicians and an

International Management Team to

What is the kind of situation that the
hospital faced in 1997?

Kamal
Thailand hit by economic

recession and South-East Asia

Currency Crisis. Thai Bahat
dipped sharply
Hit Middle Class Thai population

very badly from whom the

hospital derived most of its
revenue. They started shifting to
the Govt. hospitals.
At this stage what were the
alterantives available to Curt
Schroeder, CEO?
Krishna
Shut down and lay off employer

Use it aggressively as an

opportunity to build market

share.
At this point Curt Schroeder remarked –
We went with General Electric
approach- the Jack Welch Approach.
What is that approach?
Tanu
Jack Welch says, “ Where you

make you biggest market share

is during the down market.
What was the strategy that it adopt?

Zain
Target more Foreign Patients.

Aggressive marketing to project

Global Hospital through Internet

Marketing
Designed a Comprehensive

Website with information

available on the range of
treatments and medical facilities
available. Main Feature- Find a
Doctor . Appointments confirmed
On Dec 17, 199, the hospital
successfully switched over from its old
IS to new customized IS 2000 . What
were the tasks involved during System
Implementation?
Gagandeep
Data Conversion from Old Unix

System
Training to 1200 strong Staff and

Doctors
Installation of Required software

and Hardware
You are Curt Schroeder, CEO. How did
the HIS 2000 help You?

Robin Kataria
We are a service business and people

come to private healthcare in Thailand

because they expect efficiency and top
quality. Information technology has
always been a way to provide that.
Hospital 2000 helps us get patients
registered quickly , helps get their
pharmacy done, helps put information
at peoples' fingertips when and where
they need it; helps us get the bill out
accurately and quickly and that helps
us to be very competitive in the very
competitive healthcare market here in
What were the needs that hospital
wanted to be addressed by HIS ?
Noshin
Simplifying its internal operations primarily

billing by connecting all applications from

the pharmacy to eating outlets to the
patients’ medical treatment so that
consolidated medical bills could be
generated instantly.
Enable foreign patients to receive necessary

information in a language of their choice

and be able to book appointments and
accommodation online.
Facilitate quicker treatment for its patients

at clinics within the premises and in the

process save hospital's time and money
Connect with Suppliers and Insurers

Boost online initiative.

Which of the Global Standards did HIS
2000 adher to?
Ankit Gupta
ANSI- American National Standards Institute

Standards governing the exchange of

clinical data and management , delivery
and evaluation of healthcare services.
ISO 9002 Quality Certifications for all its

departments and systems.

Certified as a Comprehensive Tertiary Acute

Medical Centre. World’s first healthcare

company to get such certification
“It is not a magic cure, but whether you’re

selling cement, steel or healthcare,

without third party validation, it is difficult
to get international recognition.
Which is the company that installed the
Software?

Madhuri
Global Care Solutions- A

Luxemburg based Company.

You are Patrick Downing, CEO, GCS.
How did you visualize the requirements
for a complete Electronic Medical
Records of a Patient?
Ashok Kumar
Medical history.

Diagnostic Tests Results- X-ray,

MRI, Ultrasound, Lab Tests

Medical Treatment

Video Conferencing
Which were the main operations where
IT systems were deployed?

Saneel
Out Patient Sys

Accounting Sys

In-house Patient System

Document Management system.

Each system was run on different
database engines. What were those?

Sumit
Oracle

Ingress

Informix

Sybase
What all did the database conversion
involve? What were the challenges?
Siddharth
Document Management System

developed by FileNet
Corporation.
They had their own

Communication Protocol
Most of Data in Thai Language.

Mapping Difficult
5 Million documents had to be

scanned as patient records

How did GCS meet that Challenge?

Parminder
GCS wrot a program called

“FileNetConverter” which
converted each document into a
TIFF file and saved it in MS NTFS
file system
The program administered

without interruption for six

months.
How many of Desk tops, scanners,
printers were required?

Ravi
450 Desktops with 400MHz

Celeron processor with 64-128

MB RAM
4 Xeon based Servers

Power Vault Storage System.

100 Printers

120 Scanners
Which of the System and Application
Software installed?

Ayush
MS Windows 2000 Professional

MS VB 6

MS SQL Server 2000

Microsoft Exchange 2000

Microsoft Windows 2000

Advanced Server.
What was the System Architecture?

Sahil
Built in Three Tier Architecture.

PC based Clients, Transaction

Servers, Database Servers
(Clustered Servers).
Database servers supported OLAP

( On line analytical Processing)

How was the Network laid out-?

Ansha
Internet was connected with LAN

over a Router.
Departments connected through

HUBS and Switches.

Fiber Optics Cable used

TCP/IP Protocol used

The number of Clients increased

from 450 in 1999 to 900 in 2004

How was the software installed?

Varun -270
It was installed from a remote

location using proprietary

software. The installation of
upgrades also became easier.
One of the critical operation of
installing the new system was the
formal switch from old to new system.
What kind of switching did it opt for?
Nirbhay
One Time Switch over.
This type of switch over is risky, as
there is always a danger of failure of
switch over. How did they ensure
smooth switch over?
Vikas
Through proper planning,

preparation and Coordination.

Within 48 hours of operations all
major issues were addressed.
GCS team was available for the
next 15 days to ensure that
system and network were
properly attuned.
How was the Training organised?

Prateek
GCS trained the trainers in

coordination with the hospital's

Education and Training
department.
Simulated Training set up

comprising 40 PCs. Each

Department was simulated.
What were the new features introduced
subsequently?

Amit
Feb 2002- PACS- Amalga Picture

Archive Communication System –

Cost 28 mn Baht.
Runh on Microsodr Windows

2003/SQL Server platform.

It comprised all X-Ray images stored

in digital format
The system comprised diagnostic

software with a complete package

of image manipulation and
reporting tools for radiologists