Tāmaki Health has successfully implemented a single instance of Medtech Evolution, enabling patients to access care at any of its clinics and giving clinicians visibility of their medical records, improving continuity of care and patient safety.
The digital initiative has also enabled the primary healthcare group, which operates 52 clinics nationwide, to implement and scale a number of automation initiatives, improving both clinical care and back office workflows.
A shared record
Tāmaki Health has implemented a centralised practice management system (PMS) – Medtech Evolution – across 42 of its North Island clinics.
Chief executive Lloyd McCann says this enables a network approach to patient care, with seamless access to medical records regardless of which clinic a patient visits.
“All clinics are on the same database, so in essence, we have a shared care record,” he says.
“There is a huge patient benefit in terms of continuity of care and safety, in relation to that record being accessible to authorised users right across the network, particularly where there is a presentation out of hours or a virtual presentation.
“And for our clinicians, irrespective of the setting they find themselves in, the ability to access a fulsome patient record and understand the context with which this person is presenting allows you to make much better decisions and ultimately drives better outcomes.”
Four of Tāmaki’s six South Island clinics have also joined a separate South Island instance of Evolution since the start of the year, and the remaining two are expected to follow soon.
“I have been through a few massive IT implementations, and the way the team managed that, which is a very different way of working for those clinics, was seamless,” McCann says.
A centralised approach
Chief digital officer Samir Ranchhod says Tāmaki Health has been strategically working on this digital transformation for a number of years, allowing the organisation to leverage automation and AI initiatives.
“What we have tried to build out here is a strategy around creating a network of clinics that service the patients in a different way,” he explains.
The single-instance approach has enabled the healthcare provider to centralise its call centres, offering patients more flexibility when booking appointments.
“A patient might call and say, ‘I would like to book an appointment with a particular doctor’, but we are able to offer alternatives, such as being seen that morning with a clinic that is only three kilometres away,” he says.
The platform has been particularly beneficial for patients who prefer to see a specific doctor who works across multiple locations, ensuring continuity of care regardless of which clinic they visit.
Ranchhod says the centralised PMS has also enabled Tāmaki to implement and scale automation across its network. The organisation has successfully deployed 63 automation processes ranging from data transfers to patient-focused initiatives.
“The reason that we have been able to scale automation across the business so quickly is because of that centralised instance where you then are working with data that is consistent across the sites,” says Ranchhod.
Enhancing patient care
One of the most clinically beneficial automation identifies patients due for preventative health measures such as immunisations, flu jabs, and mammograms. The system automatically creates recalls, sends text messages to patients, and provides links to book appointments.
“Usually, you would have a practice nurse or admin or even the doctor going through their patient list to try and identify those people or using third party tools to do that. This way we are doing it at scale across the cohort of clinics,” Ranchhod says.
The system also automatically flags when patients or their family members are due for preventative care before they come in for appointments.
“When a patient presents in a clinic, we have got automation platforms running in the background to ensure that we have not missed something for that patient on that day,” he says.
For example, it might change the notes field automatically to say ‘while the parent is in here, please make a note that their son is due for an immunisation’.
“That has probably been one of the most impactful automation initiatives that we have done,” Ranchhod says.
For cardiovascular disease risk assessments, the system checks if necessary tests like blood pressure and lab work have been done within the required timeframe, and can automatically send test requests to patients if needed.
“We automate the lab form, send the lab form off to the labs, and send a text to the patient to say ‘can you please get your blood test, we have sent the form to the lab’,'” he explains.
“The foundational piece of having the centralised Evolution instance across multiple locations means that when we develop an automation initiative like that, we can scale it out literally overnight across those sites.”
McCann says the single instance of Evolution also enables advanced population health analytics, allowing Tāmaki to identify effective interventions across its patient base.
“The analytics we are able to run across our populations are pretty advanced in terms of understanding things like cardiovascular disease or mental health risk. It is quite unique in terms of being able to identify what interventions or initiatives are working for patients,” he says.
Improving ‘back office’ processes
Tāmaki Health’s digital team consists of 12 people, with roles spanning PMS support, data core platform support, and clinic support.
The single-instance PMS has enabled the primary health provider to automate back-office processes including staff onboarding and offboarding, saving approximately 40 hours per month of administrative time.
“When someone is created as an employee in HR, that will automatically go and create all of the accounts to allow them to access our networks, add them to the correct distribution groups for emails, add them to the right security groups based on the type of role, and then trigger off welcome emails,” says Ranchhod.
The team has also been able to reduce the processing time for new enrolments from three days to about 10 minutes.
Ranchhod says this ensures patients receive enrolled patient pricing when they visit a clinic shortly after completing online registration.
The digital team is now enhancing this system using AI technology to scan and verify identity documents uploaded during enrolment.
A technology platform for the future
Ranchhod says the team recently completed a full infrastructure refresh for the North Island clinics without any downtime for the organisation and this was made possible because of the single instance of Medtech Evolution.
McCann says the technology platform is a core component of Tāmaki’s organisational strategy: to deliver value-based care to the patients and the populations that they serve.
“It gives us the ability to innovate and automate and layer AI across that, which drives a number of clinical and administrative processes,” he says.
Jeremy van de Klundert, Medtech general manager sales and marketing, says the ability to work at pace and deliver quality implementation is a reflection of both companies working together towards a common goal.
“The relationship between Tāmaki Health and Medtech is strong and is a true partnership, delivering better healthcare to New Zealanders,” he says.
Image: Tāmaki Health chief digital officer Samir Ranchhod (left) and chief executive Lloyd McCann
Article republished with the permission of HiNZ. Any requests for further use please contact editor@hinz.org.nz