Efficient hospital processes are essential for decision-makers at Heinsberg. For this reason, the clinic has already spent years on the consistent digitization of their processes. IT supports doctors and health-care staff with medical documentation and therefore gives them more time to invest in patient care.
This is why the hospital introduced iMedOne® as a hospital information system (HIS) years ago. The iMedOne® Mobile app has established itself as an essential tool for the work of the staff. For example, it is used in wound documentation, as well as supporting service records for health insurance invoices. "We work better and faster", the users summarize. Now the clinic is taking the next digitalization step – beyond the walls of the hospital. Patients have the opportunity to book appointments with medical professionals online, starting with the anesthesia team. T-Systems and their partner m.Doc have introduced the innovative process that brings an end to call queues and more. Book an appointment online with just a few clicks!
With online appointment bookings, we have significantly reduced the administrative workload of our staff. This leaves more time to treat patients.
Dr. Thomas Baltus, Chief of Medicine for Anesthesia, Heinsberg Municipal Hospital
The highly user-friendly solution impresses both hospital staff and patients – with appointment bookings, the hospital is more accessible to patients. Missed calls are a thing of the past. Instead, patients can book an appointment through the app or website with ease – or even cancel one, if something comes up. Doctors have constant transparency regarding appointment bookings. The solution offers a significant reduction to the workload for clinic processes. A manual process, undertaken by assistants or secretaries for example, is no longer necessary. This leaves more time for patients.
With the appointment booking function, Heinsberg Hospital is taking a further step toward digitalization and benefits from being a digital pioneer. The Hospital Future Act is encouraging clinics in this by subsidizing such projects. m.Doc does not just offer appointment bookings though. The patient portal offers a wealth of other expansion modules that could support patient stays in the hospital: site plans, hospital appointments, and information means the tool can act as a clinic support app for patients. With appointment bookings, the hospital has set the course for optimizing clinic stays for patients in the future.
A team of 10 doctors at Heinsberg are in charge of all tasks regarding anesthesia. These include not only standard anesthesia, but also intensive care, emergency care, and pain management. In 2013, palliative care was introduced as well. Before each operation or before each medical treatment, a preliminary consultation between the patient and anesthetist is required. This pre-treatment consultation provides a baseline for the doctor to decide which form of anesthesia is best for the patient and gives the patient the opportunity to ask questions.
In Heinsberg, there are around 4,000 consultations, meaning that on average, each doctor in the department has to lead and document around 400 of these sessions. While long-term planning of consultations for acute care is not possible, scheduled treatments can be arranged in advance. This means doctors can plan reliably and frees up their time for urgent and short-term tasks. Heinsberg Hospital was looking for an elegant solution that allowed people outside the clinic to arrange such appointments with ease and could be integrated into hospital processes, such as transferring appointments directly into the iMedOne® HIS. The solution aims to provide maximum transparency for doctors and patients and increase the efficiency of hospital processes.
With the "appointment booking" module, one of now 30 modules on the m.Doc Smart Health platform, the clinic was able to find the correct solution with T-Systems. The hospital uses the web application as SaaS (software as a service). The whole service is supplied by the Telekom Healthcare Cloud in Germany. T-Systems operates the application in a private cloud. This fulfills the high demands placed on data security and protection in the health-care sector. The service is easy to use for both doctors and patients via a web browser. Alternatively, patients can also download the app from the relevant app store.
Appointment bookings are connected to the hospital information system via a bidirectional, synchronous standard interface. In this way, availability can be checked directly against appointment requests. The requests then appear in the doctor's calendar. They can then confirm or decline the request depending on the situation. If a request is declined, the system then suggests alternative appointment times.
