Pondok Indah Hospital and Puri Indah Hospital operates under Pondok Indah Healthcare Group (now RS Pondok Indah Group). In 2005, most of the data entry and reporting process in Pondok Indah Hospital was done manually since the Hospital Information System (HIS) was not well integrated and so did it finance management. This slowed down data entry and caused poor data integration.

Tavri Deviyan, HIS Manager at the time, role was to ensure a good IT operation at Pondok Indah Hospital and Puri Indah Hospital. Thus he had to choose the right IT solution to support the company’s strategic plan, which of course includes growing the revenue every year.

To get there, business process should run very efficient. Board of directors required on-time financial report to create strategic plan and improve the company’s performance. Board of directors meeting is held early of each month to review financial report. If the management set a 15% increase in revenue for next year, the IT team has to think what kind of system is required to support the growth.

“IT is intangible, we can’t directly contribute in growing the revenue,” says Tavri, who is based in Pondok Indah Hospital. However, the company could implement IT solutions that enable faster and more accurate financial reporting that would lead to better performance. After conducting several research, Pondok Indah Healthcare Group opt for Oracle Finance solution with the help from PT Mitra Integrasi Informatika (MII)— a subsidiary of METRODATA.

METRODATA gave six months training for the implementation of the new system, which was quite long because Pondok Indah Hospital changed its old system and integrate its Nova Vesalius with Oracle Finance. While the adjustment at Puri Indah Hospital was faster since Oracle Finance was their first IT solution program. Oracle Finance implementation at Pondok Indah Hospital was designed for ten users, while Puri Indah Hospital has less. All of the hardware, software, and server for the implementation were supported by METRODATA.

HIS is now become integrated with the implementation of Oracle Finance and Nova Vesalius. A simpler model is applied for patient check out procedure; from doctor recommendation; nurse checking, invoice issuance, payment to cashier, and so forth.

“We simplify those things,” says Tavri. Billing details is done by Oracle Finance, but billing printing is by Nova Vesalius. Each night, billing data’s are sent to Oracle Finance to be processed, thus Oracle Finance acts as bridge between the front and back end.

By batch process, which is when finance data’s are sent from Nova Vesalius to Oracle Finance, also happens every night. "We don't need real time data’s because the management needs it the next day.

This separates hospital financial management with other industries like banking or consumer goods that needs real time cash flow data’s. On the other side, real time data submission could put a burden in the overall system," Tavri explains.

What’s sure is Oracle Finance helps Pondok Indah Healthcare Group IT team to work more efficient, faster and accurate. For the management, Oracle Finance makes it easier for them to find out the company’s financial position, enabling them to see current cash flow on a daily basis. With the data’s, each week the finance director held a management meeting to discuss the latest financial condition and next target to achieve.

Oracle Finance also enables the management to know how many patients using insurance. Thus, receivables are more controlled as well as making faster and easier collection. The system will automatically notify finance department for collection on each receivables due dates. Income and expense balance can also be monitored; this includes expenses for doctor fees payments, salary payments, investment on medical tools, drugs procurements, and predicting future expenses adjusting with inflation.

The decision to use Oracle is because it offers a well-proven solution in various industries. “We use Oracle Sales Analyzer at the previous company, moreover I really enjoy the support from METRODATA team for the implementation. I already know their quality and cannot imagine if it’s done by others,” Tavri laughs.

Although there were few troubles during the implementation process, all is manageable. Since the implementation process at the end of 2005 till now, METRODATA team still pays a visit for support at least twice a year.

“METRODATA also came in 2006 and 2007 for customization. We are so close, the relationship grow informal, and we call each other by names. METRODATA support is the best,” says Tavri.