‘A hospital could not function without Cloverleaf’

Rianne de Jong, interface team product owner at UMC Utrecht, on Cloverleaf

It might seem obvious that doctors, surgeons and all other healthcare professionals in a hospital should always have immediate access to important patient data wherever they are. But not so long ago, documents like X-rays still had to be printed out and placed in an envelope on a post trolley to be wheeled from one department to the next. Today this process is entirely digital, fast and secure.

F.l.t.r. Remco Kloet (integration consultant and Team Lead Cloverleaf at Enovation), Rianne de Jong (Product Owner Interface Team UMCU), Sebastiaan Weerd (Sales Accountmanager Cure at Enovation).

Cloverleaf plays a very important role in almost every aspect of the data and information exchange in a hospital setting. The average hospital patient has no idea what this digital infrastructure looks like behind the scenes. How is biopsy data transferred to the lab? How does the doctor receive the lab results? Which medication is prescribed to the patient and how is this information sent to the pharmacy? Dozens of hospitals in the Netherlands use Cloverleaf, an interoperability solution from software provider Infor, to handle these processes. One of these hospitals is the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU).

Cloverleaf: a hub in the healthcare application landscape

Enovation is the implementation partner of Infor and supports hospitals in successfully implementing and optimising the Infor Cloverleaf environment. As Remco Kloet (integration consultant at Enovation) explains: “Cloverleaf is a communications server that functions as a central hub between the different hospital departments. It converts information from one format to another. Often the equipment in one department supplies the information in a format that cannot be read by the equipment in another department, even though they need to ‘communicate’ with each other. That’s where Cloverleaf comes in.”

Senior level support

UMC Utrecht is one of the main academic hospitals in the Netherlands.

Rianne de Jong is a product owner in the interface team that is part of the IT department at UMCU. Working with a team of eight specialists, she is responsible for maintaining the Cloverleaf solution. They have enjoyed a great collaborative relationship with Enovation for years. Anytime a large EPD update is due, Remco Kloet even supports Rianne and her colleagues one day a week on site.

“Working with Enovation has always been a fantastic experience,” says Rianne. “At the start, I spoke with Sebastiaan Weerd, the account manager at Enovation, and mentioned that I wanted to involve senior developers in our transition to HiX Standard Content. I now get to read and write alongside Remco and his colleagues. It’s great that they really listen and respond to our needs. I find that their extensive experience is a great resource. We are a relatively young team and Remco and his colleagues also make an effort to share their knowledge about the systems. And although the consultants from Enovation are only with us one day a week, it really feels like they are part of the hospital.”

Advantages

• Advantages Cloverleaf
  • Supports major international standards, such as HL7 v2 and v3, HL7 FHIR, DICOM and Edifact.

  • It is secure and complies with ISO 27001 (Information Security in Healthcare) standards.

  • Healthcare information is gathered and exchanged regardless of format or communication protocol.

  • Nearly any application or information system can be connected to each other.

  • It has an easy-to-understand graphical interface.

“A significant advantage is that the Enovation team collaborates with us, brainstorming ideas and working proactively. They also spend a lot of time in hospitals, so we don’t have to waste time reinventing the wheel and can instead focus on the project at hand,” Rianne continues.

“A good collaboration effort always involves both parties. As Remco adds: “I am always incredibly impressed by how Rianne maintains an overview of the project to be delivered no matter how many queries, adjustments and changes are made. Having such a helicopter view is great. She also gives the rest of the team space to take on responsibility and we get a chance to share our knowledge with each other. I enjoy being able to play a small part in keeping the entire hospital running.”

Cloverleaf is indispensable for the modern hospital

UMC Utrecht’s pharmacy.

“I actually cannot even imagine how a hospital could run without Cloverleaf,” says Rianne. “But it’s only natural that I would say that because I work closely with it every day and really see the added value. Working in the IT department is great because we get to collaborate with all the other departments in the hospital, while also maintaining interfaces with external systems. This makes for challenging, complex and varied work.”

“The nice thing about Cloverleaf is that you can interact with all the different aspects. It’s so well designed that you can work with it after just a couple of training sessions. I also like how Enovation provides regular training opportunities.”

In-house support

Both UMCU and Enovation have benefited from their partnership over the years because it keeps the lines of communication short, allowing for quick action when needed. “There’s always something to be done with a hospital system,” says Remco. “New software has to be installed, new features added, interfaces updated and so much more.”

Anyone who works in hospital IT knows how complex it is. “More and more applications are involved, and each one works in its own specific way,” says Remco. “The challenge lies in getting these to work together through Cloverleaf. A hospital like the UMCU has over one hundred different systems connected to Cloverleaf!”

A wide-ranging project

Rianne and her team currently have their sights set on a large project involving the Electronic Patient Dossier which is, of course, also connected to Cloverleaf. “This means that we now have over 400 Cloverleaf connections to adapt and test.” This significant change will have an impact on the entire hospital. “It’s a huge version update, which requires a lot of preparation from everyone. I find it very rewarding to work on such a complex project that involves collaborating with all stakeholders and planning for success.”

Specific requirements

Information exchange is essential in a hospital.

“What IT challenges do we face as a hospital? That is a very broad question. These range from the upcoming changes to the EPD system, to our ongoing collaboration with other hospitals. In our work with the Central Military Hospital in Utrecht, we face a whole set of specific requirements when it comes to sharing patient data. We also work with the Princess Máxima Centre, which is separate from the UMCU but shares some joint applications. We have to make that technically viable.”

The Central Sterilisation Department at UMCU is another nice example of a relatively new and innovative system. This department ensures that all the instruments used in a surgery, for example, are meticulously cleaned and sterilised afterwards. “This is an ultramodern department which is almost entirely automated,” Rianne adds. “Imagine a whole bunch of robots riding around as a computer keeps track of where everything is. Everything is also continuously monitored and, of course, connected to Cloverleaf.”

If you would like to learn more about Cloverleaf and its potential, please contact us.