• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Post-Hurricane Katrina Healthcare Planning Prompts Louisiana Public Health Institute to Partner With ReadSoft

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 February 2007, 15:01 CST

After parts of Southeast United States were affected by natural disaster Hurricane Katrina, healthcare was one of the many public services gone awry. The Louisiana Public Health Institute's decision to use ReadSoft software was part of a statewide effort to restore public healthcare in a unified manner.

The direction Louisiana public healthcare would take depended greatly on the results from the "2006 Louisiana Health and Population Survey." This survey was administered on behalf of three major organizations -- the Louisiana Public Health Institute, Louisiana Public Hospitals and the Louisiana Recovery Authority -- all with a common goal of maintaining public health services post-Hurricane Katrina.

ReadSoft was selected as the vendor of choice of software to process the incoming surveys due to the technical advice of current ReadSoft customers Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Census Bureau. The software would work in conjunction with statistical analysis software from SPSS.

"Since the CDC had successfully used ReadSoft for its survey response processing, ReadSoft came highly recommended by the CDC," said Greg Stone, Technical Manager of the Louisiana Public Health Institute. "Our own familiarity with how the software could process our survey data was gained when we brought our own surveys to ReadSoft classroom training."

Information collected in this survey included demographics and health information of the remaining Louisiana residents, which was developed by the CDC alongside the Louisiana Public Health Institute. It was vital for the organizations to have an accurate understanding of the population of Louisiana post-Katrina and the level of healthcare needed in the state. Such results were extremely sensitive in nature, and timely processing of the data was essential to revive the state's level of healthcare.

"We needed the most efficient and speedy method of data extraction for this project," said Gaurav Nagrath, Director of Information Systems & Technology Development at the Louisiana Public Health Institute. "We have processed several surveys by hand in the past, but the scope of this project exceeds those. ReadSoft had the accuracy and speed necessary to make this project successful."

Initial results for the first four areas surveyed were released in October 2006, just days after the completion of data collection. The Louisiana Public Health Institute was able to perform such a rapid turnover thanks in part to the data extraction and processing power of ReadSoft's DOCUMENTS for Forms software. The "2006 Louisiana Health and Population Survey" revealed that the population of New Orleans is about 40 percent of it pre-Katrina size and that the population of the five-parish Greater Metropolitan Area stands at about 890,000, which represents approximately 75 percent of its pre-Katrina population.

"ReadSoft, working along with SPSS and the CDC, to assist with these vital demographic surveys demonstrates how technology partners can solve business and government real-life problems," said Bob Fresneda, President of ReadSoft North America. "We are proud to play a part in such a worthwhile recovery effort."

About the Louisiana Public Health Institute:

Since 1997, the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI) has worked to promote and improve the health and quality of life in Louisiana through public-private partnering at the community, parish and state level and provide information for decision making and policy development. Current activities employ a community-based systems approach to improving access to care, environmental tobacco policy change, health promotion and disease prevention, and enhancing the capacity of communities to address critical and chronic health issues. LPHI is a member of the National Network of Public Health Institutes and is the administrative home of their national office. For more information visit www.lphi.org.

About ReadSoft:

ReadSoft is the global leader in the development and sales of a complete product platform for Document Automation. With thousands of customers on a global basis, ReadSoft supports customers and partners in North America with offices in 7 locations, including the corporate headquarters in New Orleans, LA.

Established in 1991, ReadSoft was first to bring free form technology for invoice processing to market and first to achieve certifications to enterprise resource planning systems such as SAP and Oracle. ReadSoft has become the global technology leader, with subsidiaries in 11 countries and partners in an additional 70. We are proud to have the largest and most innovative development department in the industry, with professional services to assist customers and partners on a global basis. ReadSoft's vision is to free businesses everywhere from manual document handling. For more information please visit www.readsoft.com.

 For more information, please contact:  Gaurav Nagrath Director of Information Systems & Technology Development Louisiana Public Health Institute 504.301.9810 Contact via http://www.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=2B05A1CBDE3DA715  Alayne Pregeant Marketing Manager ReadSoft 504.841.0119 Contact via http://www.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=F3039863702345D9  Bob Fresneda President ReadSoft 504.841.0111 Contact via http://www.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=873083DD8168DF14  

SOURCE: ReadSoft North America

Source: MARKET WIRE

More News in this Category