Transforming healthcare appointments
Mercy Radiology gives their patients’ control over their appointments
Background
Imagine that booking your radiology appointment is as easy as ordering takeout. While most of our day to day lives have become more consumer-centered through technology, the healthcare industry has seemed resistant to the trend.
"I thought about it from a broader consumer perspective. You book travel, haircuts, purchase food online and yet we don't offer the same level of service in health,"
— Lloyd McCann, CEO of Mercy Radiology.
McCann decided the responsibility to simplify healthcare lies within the industry itself.
Technology
Aceso Health, working with our partner Sorsix, drew on their past experiences with in-depth technology transformations, such as the implementation of Snapscan for I-MED in Australia, and the nationally-used Pinga system in Macedonia and Serbia, to implement a solution for Mercy Radiology. The resulting system is customisation and consists of an online booking tool, a patient portal and a clinician's dashboard.
Challenges
Due to the complicated and sensitive nature of healthcare, the team at Mercy Radiology had concerns before the system was implemented. They wanted to know things like how to ensure people didn't double book, how to qualify people for scans and how to confirm completion of required tests.
Results
Technology readiness presented across all populations. Some team members were concerned that the older generation may not embrace the new system. A quarter of patients booking through the online system were between the ages of 50 and 70 years, thus revealing a few misconceptions about customer behaviour.
In the first five weeks, there were over 2000 online bookings. This resulted in a 19 percent reduction in call centre activity with no overall drop in bookings.
The reduction of incoming calls gave the staff more time for other tasks like making follow up calls and providing more thorough care leading to decreased time to diagnosis. The integrated booking system also encouraged the branches to work more cohesively as a network.
A patient satisfaction survey provided overwhelmingly positive feedback and the reception reports many patients praising the immediacy, ease and comfort of not having to wait in a call centre queue.
Patients were not the only ones pleased. Stewart praised Aceso's flexibility and creative problem-solving style while McCann rated the collaboration as positive and a rare true partnership.
"Patient-centered care has been the rallying cry of the health system for over a decade, it takes real leadership to challenge the processes and systems which health has relied on for so long and do something uniquely consumer-focused. Lloyd and the team at Mercy Radiology are showing the leadership and engagement the industry needs to delight patients and medical professions alike and Sorsix Snapscan is one small part of that ongoing digital transformation health is embarking on."
— Gabe Rijpma, CEO of Aceso Health
Future Plans
Although this technology is the first of its kind in New Zealand, it marks a change in how healthcare engages patients and how health workflows are managed and improved. Healthcare will echo other aspects of modern life by continuing to become more consumer-centered.
Stewart and McCann are already dreaming big, with hopes to expand the use of the technology. In the future, the system may speed up certain pathways in the oncology space, reduce wait times, and lessen appointment gaps between radiologists and specialists.
The true value and benefit of the digital online booking transformation is here at Mercy Radiology today. Tomorrow the rework of more traditional health processes into digital pathways remains the goals, done right this will transform the patients’ experience of the health system they know today.
