UPMC Works with Oracle and Cerner to Provide Clinicians with Continuous Access to Patient Health Records

To enhance the quality and safety of patient care, UPMC, a national leader in the use of electronic medical records (EMRs), has implemented a system that uses Oracle GoldenGate and Cerner’s 724Access® software to ensure that its clinicians have continuous, secure access to the most up-to-date patient and order data.

UPMC, Oracle and Cerner have integrated Oracle GoldenGate with Cerner’s 724Access software to help reduce potential downtime for UPMC’s eRecord system from hours, which is typical in the industry, to minutes. With its dramatic reduction in downtime and potential reliance on paper backup systems, UPMC is one of the largest Cerner clients of this size and scope to develop such a capability.

UPMC (www.upmc.com/) is a $9 billion global health enterprise with 50,000 employees and a diverse health care network that includes more than 20 hospitals, 400 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, a health insurance services division, and international and commercial services.

As part of its adoption of EMRs, UPMC has deployed 14 Cerner Millennium® applications across its hospitals, including Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and PowerChart®, which provide a comprehensive electronic medical record of each patient.

To enable business continuity, UPMC chose Oracle GoldenGate and Cerner’s 724Access solution to provide a high availability EMR solution with 24×7, read-only access to its Cerner® applications.

UPMC implemented Oracle GoldenGate to replicate all patient data from its Cerner applications running on Oracle Database (www.oracle.com/database) in real-time to a standby Oracle Database for immediate switchover. The source Oracle Database contains 17 Terabytes of data and supports 4,500 concurrent users (clinicians) and more than 850,000 interactions each day.

Oracle GoldenGate synchronizes the production and standby databases with only sub-second latency and enables physicians and staff to continue to view patient data and orders during any planned or unplanned outage.

Cerner’s 724Access solution with Oracle GoldenGate enables UPMC to activate the standby database in just 12 minutes with data current from that point on. Previously, it took nearly two hours to activate the instance.

“It’s critical that our doctors, nurses and clinicians have access to the most up-to-date patient healthcare information at their fingertips to help ensure that our patients have the best healthcare experience,” said William Costantini, Associate Director, Integrated Operations Center, UPMC. “By developing a system that incorporates Oracle GoldenGate, we have enabled our clinicians to have virtually 24×7 access to electronic patient data whenever they need it, even when the system is down. This capability is rare in our industry and critical to our goal of providing patient-centered care with the help of smart technology.”

“Electronic medical records have the power to transform healthcare delivery,” said Marc Perlman, global vice president, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Oracle. “They must, however, be available when and where they are needed. Downtime is not acceptable, especially when it affects patient care. With Oracle GoldenGate, UPMC can ensure high availability of patients’ medical records, even during unplanned outages.”

“This joint effort with Oracle and UPMC demonstrates the importance of collaboration to successfully support health care demands and ultimately make health care safer,” said Mike Nill, Cerner COO.