“Expanding The Limits”
Dr. James E. Hannigan

LaGrange Oncology Associates, S.C.
LaGrange, Illinois

 
THE CLIENT PROFILE                         

Dr. Hannigan is the Medical Director of the LaGrange Memorial Hospital Oncology Program.

LaGrange Oncology provides diagnosis and treatment for patients with cancer. LaGrange Oncology will also manage the medical component of cancer treatment including chemotherapy, and work closely with surgeons, pathologists and radiation oncologists in planning and administering the most appropriate therapy.

The Technical Setting        

LaGrange Oncology used an old legacy system and boxed software solutions to run the day-to-day operations.  

THE CLIENT CONCERN

Dr. Hannigan and his staff had several problems that needed to be addressed.  First, and foremost, he and his staff of doctors had no access to patient information outside of the office.  Any time a patient of theirs was rushed to a hospital they had to have someone physically pull out a chart and read the patient care notes back to them, or they had to go back to the office to review it for themselves before they could make clinical recommendations.  Another issue that they had was no computer applications to calculate specific dosages of medicine or chemotherapy treatments.  The last major problem they had was the variance of computer knowledge within the office itself.  Their levels of computer expertise ranged from novice to advanced.  They were afraid that no solution would be able to accommodate all the different levels of knowledge and still be effective enough to run their day-to-day operations.

THE NETMEDIC APPROACH

Netmedic developed the solution that LaGrange was looking for using Lotus Notes.  Lotus Notes R5 is an integrated, Web-like environment that provides users with quicker access to, and better management of, their company’s information – in this case their patient’s medical history. The Lotus Notes solution enabled LaGrange Oncology to extract their patient records from their existing AS/400 system and migrate them into their new environment.  Also, the doctors now have the ability to easily perform complex medication dosage calculations and track chemo regiments because of the unique design that the Netmedic Lotus Notes developers used.  Also, a very brief training session with the LaGrange Oncology staff has brought everyone up to speed on the functions and capabilities of their new solution. 

CLIENT FEEDBACK

The doctors at LaGrange Oncology have a web-enabled application that allows them to monitor their patient’s care more effectively.   The project was completed in the time frame that was specified, as well as, within the budget that was designated for the project.  The end result of this project for LaGrange Oncology is complete satisfaction and a new partnership with Netmedic!  Now, as long as the doctors have access to the Internet – they have access to their patient’s records and this results in better care for the patient!