Life Healthcare needed to replace its legacy Oracle-based Patient Administration System (PAS) with a more flexible and modern platform due to aging hardware, rising maintenance costs, and resource shortages. The new system, named Impilo, was built on a Microsoft stack with a thick client interface and horizontally scaled middle-tier to support 64 facilities nationwide. The architecture aimed to centralise data management, reduce administrative costs, and improve data analytics, while addressing the complexities of South Africa’s healthcare system, particularly regarding insurance interactions.

While Impilo focused on administrative functions, Life Healthcare implemented SAP for financial operations like general ledger and stock management. Integrations with SAP were handled through Biztalk middleware, enabling efficient data exchange between systems for tasks such as revenue journaling and stock consumption.

Billing checks were a key enhancement, ensuring tasks were completed across departments before billing submission. Custom dashboards and workflows were implemented to improve inter-departmental communication and efficiency. These checks played a crucial role in improving the accuracy of bills, increasing the likelihood of successful payments from insurers and funders.

In addition to improving operational efficiency, Life Healthcare enhanced its enterprise data warehouse, improving the traceability of transactions and enabling better data aggregation and comparison across facilities. 

The project required comprehensive governance and release control due to its mission-critical nature. Dariel provided a full spectrum of services, including project management, architecture, software engineering, and business intelligence, ensuring the system was delivered smoothly and in stages. This structured approach ensured both continuous delivery and high-quality control throughout the project.

Outcomes:

• The Impilo system successfully reduced billing days by 33%, a critical improvement for hospital cash flow.
• Billing checks prior to submission significantly reduced errors and the need to recapture information
• Bills significantly more accurate, increasing number and speed of payments

Tech:

• C# .NET
• NHibernate
• Windows Presentation Foundation
• Windows Communication Foundation
• Microsoft Message Queues
• Microsoft Biztalk and SQL Server
• Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services
• Microsoft Reporting Services
• Microsoft Standalone LDAP
• Microsoft Analysis Services
• Business Intelligence Markup Language
• Apache Load Balancer
• Azure DevOps
• Sparx Enterprise Architect