PCS HEALTH SYSTEMS WEB ENABLES DATA WAREHOUSE WITH
HELP FROM SQRIBE AND IBM; JAVA-BASED BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE APPLLICATION SPEEDS INFORMATION TO FIELD
SQRIBE Technologies has announced that PCS Health Systems has Web enabled its data warehouse using a Java-based business intelligence application, giving PCS's clinical field specialists quick access to information used to improve patient care. The new application, jointly developed by PCS, SQRIBE and IBM Global Services, enables PCS to organize, secure, and disseminate via the Web any enterprise information including documents, reports, and legacy data to increase the speed and quality of decision making.
PCS, the largest pharmaceutical benefit management company (PBM) in the U.S., has long been using business intelligence technology to manage and analyze claims data. PCS clinical specialists in the field need fast, easy access to data that allows them to discuss prescription therapy options with physicians. This latest step speeds the distribution of this critical information to these specialists, as well as client support staffers.
PCS is networked to 98 percent of the retail pharmacies in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and, as a result, has been able to deal effectively and efficiently with an enormous amount of prescription information. PCS utilizes a 750-Gigabyte data warehouse containing approximately 570 million prescription claim transactions. PCS engaged IBM Global Services to build the business intelligence application that would pull data from a subset of PCS's data warehouse and interface with an existing sales force automation application. The main prescription data warehouse contains 25 months of claim data stored in IBM DB2 Universal Database Enterprise-Extended Edition on a 48-node RS/6000 SP server.
"We needed to provide clinical specialists in remote locations with access to information that is used to improve the quality of care for PCS plan members nationwide," said David Thompson, vice president of information warehouse services for PCS. "The challenge was to provide that information with minimal overhead costs and without requiring users to have a Ph.D. in online analytical processing (OLAP) or data mining. The new solution has already resulted in a dramatic increase in the effectiveness of our clinical consultants in the field, who are now empowered to make informed decisions and recommendations to physicians."
SQRIBE's 100% Java-based ReportMart Enterprise Information Portal software serves as the repository for the drug prescription history/data that PCS clinical specialists use in working with physicians to help improve the health of hundreds of thousands of patients across the country. Using ReportMart, clinical specialists now have access to pharmacy benefits information on their laptops via a Web browser. PCS chose ReportMart as the key component in the solution for its scalability, and because it does not require the clinical specialists to maintain a local database or stay connected while the reports were being created.
Previously at PCS, even if reports were relatively simple, specialists could only process one at a time. As a result, specialists were sometimes spending entire workdays in front of their computers. Now, the clinical specialists log into the data warehouse through their browsers and order all the reports they need at once. The reports, which take approximately two minutes each to generate, can be printed as needed. The specialists' time is now more efficiently spent in consulting sessions with physicians. In addition, because the client part of the application is browser-based, PCS has eliminated the costs and time associated with client software distribution and upgrades.
"Companies in healthcare and numerous other industries are using business intelligence to turn data into useful information," said Ben Barnes, general manager, IBM Global Business Intelligence Solutions. "Distributing that information quickly to the field closes the loop in the business intelligence process by enabling end users to apply this knowledge to their work. In PCS's case, the company's clinical specialists are providing physicians with information that helps them make more informed decisions that can improve health, while keeping healthcare costs down."
"The new clinical consulting application is notable for the way it enables business intelligence to play a direct, active role in the field consulting process," said Bob Macdonald, vice president of marketing for SQRIBE. "There is a growing need among businesses to distribute decision-making capabilities throughout the enterprise. Unlike passive, historical reports, this is an interactive application that makes it easy for field consultants to share up-to-the-minute data with doctors in real time."
"We work vigilantly to protect the confidentiality of the prescription information we manage," Thompson said. "ReportMart assists us in safeguarding data because it allows key information to be maintained in a protected central source rather than in several field locations."
About SQRIBE Technologies
SQRIBE Technologies, The Enterprise Reporting Company, is a leader in the rapidly expanding enterprise reporting market. SQRIBE's vision is to provide the high-return enterprise reporting solution for the Web-enabled business, enabling companies to improve the quality and speed of decision making at every level of the organization. The company's flagship product, SQRIBE Enterprise, is an integrated solution designed to leverage a company's investment in data warehouses, ERP systems, and other software, hardware, and networking infrastructure technologies. SQRIBE Enterprise consists of four key components: SQR Enterprise Reporting Server; VisualSQRIBE Interactive Report Builder; ReportMart Enterprise Information Portal (for Web-based information delivery), and PowerSQRIBE Visual Query and Analysis.
SQRIBE Technologies has thousands of customers worldwide, including half of the Fortune 500. Leading commercial application providers, such as PeopleSoft, also integrate SQRIBE technology into their solutions. The privately held company is based in Menlo Park, Calif., with regional headquarters in London, Munich, Paris, and Sydney.
Information about SQRIBE and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sqribe.com