With five GPs, a private dental clinic, hospital ward, 24/7 Emergency Department and Mole-Mapping Franchise, Gore Health Ltd offers a range of public and private integrated health services to patients in Gore, Mataura, Tapanui and the wider Eastern and Northern Southland regions.

“Gore Health is committed to improving the health of our community by providing innovative, high quality, patient-focused healthcare,” says administration manager Fiona Marsh. “We continually strive to improve the quality and range of our services to meet the expectations of our patients and community.”

As one of the largest privately-owned and operated healthcare centres in Southland, Fiona says Gore Health needs access to innovative technology solutions, sturdy platforms and comprehensive IT support around the clock.

“We’re a 24-hour service provider, so technology solutions – like PCs, laptops, phones, servers and internet – play an important role in how we manage our people, both patients and staff,” Fiona says. “And Focus has been there for more than 10 years to support and manage this for us.”

Today, the Focus team works with Fiona on a daily basis to manage and maintain the IT and technical side of the hospital. This includes the hospital’s maintenance replacement programme (replacing and upgrading computers and other hardware), managing anti-virus software and completing server upgrades and data backups.

“The local team are always onsite when we need them,” Fiona says. “Working with a committed team who have been with us for a long time, know our industry and understand our IT requirements makes a huge difference to how we operate.”

Recently, Gore Health has been working with Focus to implement TimeTrak – a web-based scheduling application accessible across any mobile device.

Developed by Focus, TimeTrak gives Gore Health the flexibility to manage their staff from any location, using a single online system.

“Prior to TimeTrak, we were using another paperless programme,” Fiona says. “However, the costs associated with developing that software to meet our needs were too high. Working with Focus, we realised it was better for the hospital to switch to a local product that could be tailored to the healthcare environment.”

Using TimeTrak, the Gore Health team can liaise with consultants and nurses in real-time.

“Nursing staff on the road can receive an instant response from a consultant or GP while they’re still in a patient’s home,” Fiona says. “This enables them to provide better care to their patients in a shorter timeframe.”

Each nurse carries a tablet with an attached keyboard pre-installed with the TimeTrak software. They can then upload their daily notes, or progress reports, patient photos and personal details and securely share it with other hospital staff.

“Another advantage of using TimeTrak is that we can grow and build our clinical documents into the system,” Fiona says. “And we can do most of it ourselves.”

Using a local product, developed by a local, trusted team, means Gore Health has been able to adapt the TimeTrak software to meet the hospital’s unique needs and preferences.

“The next phase will be working with Focus to integrate our clinical portal, Health Connect, with the TimeTrak software,” says Fiona. “If we’re successful, it will mean total oversight for our doctors and nurses.”