An artist's rendition of the Bethesda facility.
Velrada will implement Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare for an upcoming mental health clinic run by Bethesda Health Care in Cockburn, Western Australia.
The facility’s first stage started in June 2021 after receiving development approval in February, with the second stage to be completed by December this year. When complete, the Cockburn facility will have a wellbeing centre, consultation rooms and 45 overnight beds, with plans to expand this to 75 by 2023.
By using Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, a version of its cloud-based software — which includes Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft 365 — for healthcare organisations, as its patient administration system (PAS), the clinic will bring together data from disparate systems into a single solution.
The data will then support improved consumer care and clinical insights, data analytics, machine learning and the potential for artificial intelligence.
“Having the cloud-based system allows an incredible amount of important data to be exchanged from multiple operational and clinical sources, creating more connected consumer experiences, where the consumer is in control of what is shared and who it is shared with,” said Bethesda CEO Dr Neale Fong.
According to Velrada director Jennifer Evans, Velrada was chosen as the implementation partner on the project due to having industry knowledge and expertise, as well as backing from Microsoft.
“A key focus and unique aspect of this approach delivered by Velrada, Bethesda and Microsoft is enabling transitions from the community to inpatient and back into community care as smooth as possible for consumers, patients and their loved ones,” said Dr Nic Woods, chief medical officer at Microsoft Australia.
“There has never been such a need as now to provide new and connected services for people affected by mental health issues. This is a huge step in supporting care across often very complex needs and one that Microsoft is very proud to be taking with Bethesda and Velrada.
“By harnessing the power of cloud technology, Bethesda will be able to evolve how it engages consumers and patients in their care, to significantly improve outcomes for both patients and staff.”
That engagement through Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare includes offering customers and medical practitioners direct access to patient history, with the PAS keeping a record of what it refers to as a patient’s “episode of care”.
It is also able to track a patient’s care plan both as an inpatient and out-patient.
Velrada’s planned work with Bethesda comes over a month after its acquisition by ASG Group in March.
Through the acquisition, Velrada is expected to have the opportunity for accelerated growth, global scale and alignment with its key customers, according to its CEO Robert Evans.
“It has been an incredible journey for Velrada and we are delighted with the outcome. We bootstrapped this company ourselves and, through hard work and innovation, have grown Velrada into one of the most valuable technology companies in Western Australia,” he said at the time.
