WEBHOSPITAL
Choosing continuity rather than disruption
A new building, a new care project, and an information system to rethink.
Against this backdrop, Maison Saint-Louis, a healthcare facility run by the Mission Père Cestac association, began migrating from Osiris to HopitalWeb. A look back at the reasons behind a deliberate choice based on continuity, proximity and high standards.
A facility undergoing major transformation
Maison Saint-Louis is a multidisciplinary rehabilitation care facility with 45 full inpatient beds and 20 day-hospital places, managed by the non-profit Mission Père Cestac association. Beyond healthcare, the association is also active in the social and medico-social sectors, with the stated ambition of creating a working environment built around strong values.
The facility recently moved into a new building designed to meet current standards and support a renewed care project focused on rehabilitation.
This move to a new building was accompanied by an ambitious medical and paramedical care project. We needed an information system capable of supporting this transformation.
A carefully considered change of information system
Having used Osiris for nine years, the facility drew up detailed specifications before deciding in favour of HopitalWeb to replace its existing electronic patient record system. Several solutions available on the market were compared.
The decision was not based solely on the product’s promises. “What appealed to us was data continuity and a step-by-step approach, rather than a complete break with the past,” explains Mr Gardera. For a small organisation with limited internal resources, the close relationship with the software provider was just as important as the features: “We are at a pivotal moment in our development; we needed close support.”
HopitalWeb’s fully web-based architecture, its externally hosted solution, and an investment considered more manageable than that required by other solutions on the market ultimately convinced the facility.
A deployment method based on co-construction
Rather than entrusting the project solely to management, Maison Saint-Louis chose to set up a multidisciplinary steering committee involving management, care and administrative managers, secretarial staff, a physiotherapist and a nurse — almost every professional group within the facility was involved from the outset.
“Our strength lies in working together with all those on the ground, not just with strategic partners,” emphasises the director. This approach is also underpinned by a stable team: around sixty users in total, with low staff turnover, which facilitates the long-term adoption of new tools and practices by all professionals.
On the Evolucare side, the support provided by project manager Fabien Dupont was particularly appreciated: his in-depth knowledge of the healthcare sector and of users’ day-to-day requirements was considered essential in asking the right questions and keeping the project on track throughout.
The migration from Osiris to HopitalWeb took place in two stages: first, the move to Medsphère under an outsourced management model, followed by the deployment of HopitalWeb, with several months of training and configuration before going live.
What matters in this type of project is listening to users at every stage — from training and configuration through to post-deployment support. Every visit to Maison Saint-Louis gives us an opportunity to fine-tune HopitalWeb as closely as possible to the way it is actually used. Our role doesn’t end when the system goes live; we remain committed to supporting the facility over the long term.
Taking change management seriously
Changing systems in a facility where the electronic patient record underpins almost every aspect of day-to-day activity — managing sessions, records and schedules — is far from straightforward, particularly for the care teams themselves: care assistants, nurses, rehabilitation professionals and physiotherapists. « They need to understand that what may initially be seen as a constraint is also an opportunity to improve their working practices », explains Mr Gardera, who emphasises the central role played by both management and the project manager in supporting the transition among users on the ground.
This vigilance is also reflected in the facility’s choice of organisational model: the ability for several different professional profiles within the organisation to manage certain software settings themselves — a way of ensuring that teams continue to develop a detailed understanding and ownership of how the system is used over time.
Tangible benefits and a solution that continues to evolve
Two clear benefits have emerged from the deployment.
The first concerns infrastructure and availability: centralised hosting represents a significant improvement over the previous solution, particularly in terms of support responsiveness. For a small organisation without dedicated IT or information security departments, outsourcing responsibility for data security represents a genuine advantage, while also helping to meet regulatory requirements.
The second is the software’s ability to evolve in line with the client’s needs: « The fully web-based architecture and the responsiveness to our requests show that we made the right choice. There is a genuine ability to keep developing the software and adapt it precisely to our needs », M. Gardera observes.
For Mr Gardera, this choice is above all part of the wider development of his facility: supporting the transition to the new building and the new care project with a tool capable of evolving at the same pace as the organisation’s needs. “I am satisfied with the choice we made,” he concludes.
Jean-Christophe GARDERA is Director of the Healthcare Division at the Mission Père Cestac association, overseeing a multidisciplinary rehabilitation care facility with 45 full inpatient beds and 20 day-hospital places. A healthcare professional by training, he has overseen the implementation of several hospital information systems during his career.
Find out more
HopitalWeb currently supports rehabilitation care facilities of different sizes and profiles in their digital transformation, with an approach based on proximity and continuous adaptation to users’ needs.