Monday, June 10, was the Go live date for the Blue Star Animal Hospital (Blå Stjärnans Djursjukhus) project "The right competence in first step". The project is about shortening the workflow in the emergency to ensure patient safety and secure the information feed. The animal hospital, with great help of digitization, has shortened the workflow and reduced the number of people involved in each step of the emergency process.
I was on site and got a chat with project manager Madeleine Holmberg.
“The project background is a combination of theoretical knowledge thanks to my studies in organizational and business management and visits to human hospitals made by my colleague and project member Susanne Barnell, where she saw human care workflow and the benefits. The purpose is to increase patient safety and secure the flow of information throughout the process”, Holmberg says.
We stand in the center of the policlinic and are viewing a big, TV-screen. Blue Star's IT expert Pedro Rodrigues has ensured that the triage is shown clearly to everyone who works in the emergency through the large information screen. At the screen, both the patients who have been triaged in the system and those waiting for a triage are shown. Rodrigues has with his programming skills, managed to show only the views in Provet Cloud that apply to emergency patients and relevant content. It looks very nice.
About 30 minutes after the emergency opened for the day, today's triage coordinator says she does not need the old triage papers anymore. It feels good to be able to write her triage directly on the computer and she feels that the team around her has a complete overview digitally. Project manager Holmberg looks happy! This is a big part of the changed routine.
“Provet Clouds triage development in the medical record system came in very suitable and fit into our project”, says Holmberg.
“We have been working to inform and educate all staff since January this year. Since we have several new roles in the process, it is important that everyone understands the purpose of the project. Of course you always feel you could have done more but we had both meetings and training opportunities for the triage coordinators. Then we have a manual done with our new internal routines and instructions for Provet Cloud. The last bits of the project fell into place this morning, just in time”, says a happy Holmberg.
“Previously, we had all triage management on paper”, says Holmberg.
The emergency process has been a rather heavy process, with our new workflow and with the digitization, the efficiency and information flow has improved significantly.
I go to the waiting room and see how a triage is being done. Since both the triage and the enrollment coordinator have a tablet with them, they can make estimations and inform colleagues directly in the system wherever they are at the clinic which saves time and increases patient safety, all information is in one place.
Out in the waiting room, the triage coordinator meets a dog who has come in to emergency, writes the triage directly in the tablet and the patient gets a color (a triage priority) in Provet Cloud and on the screen inside the Policlinic center. It is not difficult to see that this is much more effective than before, when the reception desk left notes to the emergency team on paper, which, depending on who had time, did the triage.
“We have shortened the workflow considerably when everything can be reported directly in the system”, says Holmberg.
But also, the new roles have a great effect, now the emergency team focus only at treating patients and thanks to the tablets we have considerably less paper.
I ask Holmberg what the challenges have been with the project.
“Determining where the triage coordinator should start from. Small problems have of course arisen during the course of the project, but all such things can be solved gradually with a creative project team and wise input from colleagues.”
How does it feel today, I ask Holmberg;
“Today it feels great! It has been very fun.“
Text: Ellen Kilander, Yoma Consulting AB
