Max Healthcare and Perot Systems have announced a 10-year agreement in which Perot Systems will provide IT outsourcing (ITO) and electronic health records (EHR) implementation for MHC. This agreement marks Perot Systems’ first full ITO in the Indian healthcare industry as well as the company’s first acquisition of an India-based healthcare client.

As per the contract that exceeds an amount of Rs 90 crore, Perot Systems will provide Max Healthcare with full infrastructure management capabilities, data hosting, infrastructure support, project management support, helpdesk support and the implementation and clinical adoption of an electronic health records (EHR) system using VistA software, which is an open source software platform developed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs for Healthcare Facilities. The integrated Hospital Information System (HIS) and EHR will allow access to complete patient information across MHC. These advances are expected to enable MHC to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare through better record accessibility, Computerised Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and care planning.

Dr Pervez Ahmed, CEO & MD, Max Healthcare, said, "Max Healthcare is striving to revolutionise healthcare delivery in India. In this effort, we were searching for a technology partner with broad healthcare experience, who could assume the responsibilities for our IT solutions and implement an EHR that would comply with evidence-based medicine and clinical best practice standards, ensuring quality of patient care. Perot Systems fit the bill so we went ahead with the deal."

Dr Neena Pahuja, CIO, Max Healthcare, said, "All our patient records and details were paper-based; we wanted to digitise and automate the same. This would prevent the need to diagnose a previous patient of Max Healthcare again. Also, we are trying to build a database of patients that we can share with other healthcare centres. Not only is this a major initiative for our company, but also a breakthrough for the healthcare sector in our country. This would lead to cost savings for customers and the company."

"The engagement with Max Healthcare marks Perot Systems’ entry into the Indian healthcare market," said Anurag Jain, president, Applications & Process Solutions Group, and managing director for Asia-Pacific for Perot Systems. "We expect that this new EHR system will enable Max Healthcare to improve the quality of care at the point-of-care by not only reducing administrative delays, but improving the availability and delivery of the right information for clinicians including the nursing staff. The new system will involve the highest standard of data security and confidentiality required for a healthcare environment and will also help eliminate medical errors and ensure standard care workflows across Max Healthcare. Perot Systems is committed to the transformation of healthcare delivery in India."