In another step closer to a digitised healthcare system, Hunter New England and Central Coast PHN has tapped not-for-profit HealthWISE to pilot a new booking system powered by Healthengine.
Primary care not-for-profit HealthWISE is hoping its new aggregated booking platform will help improve access, efficiency, and patient experience for its vulnerable clients.
The company has been chosen by Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network (HNECC PHN) to be part of a new pilot to introduce an aggregated digital booking platform.
Currently, all HealthWISE appointments are managed over the phone, which has challenges in handling no-shows, late cancellations, and referral management.
However, its new digital platform will allow clients to book their appointments online. Once the referral has been triggered, the intake has been completed, and a clinician allocated, the client will receive a text communication to book an appointment.
The one-year pilot will be trialled with a few mental health programs in a range of towns of various sizes.
According to HNECC PHN’s executive manager of digital health and technology, Melissa Pollard said the project is more than just booking appointments.
“It’s about reducing barriers to care, improving efficiency for providers, and making sure patients can access the services they need, when they need them.”
Anne Williams, executive manager of services with HealthWISE, said it will also save time for clients and clinicians.
“We get a lot of people calling ‘I just had a missed call’. Or they might get put through to an office in a different location. So, there’s quite a lot of detective work that goes on with missed calls that we will minimise,” she said.
She said there are other benefits, including clients being able to cancel their booking without having to phone.
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“They might wake up in the morning with a headache or a sick child and need to cancel. There’s also a nice safety net that if the client doesn’t make contact, we will be notified, and we can reach out and help them make that appointment,” she said.
Healthengine was chosen for its advanced functionality and strategic fit. It has a waitlist capability, which helps referred clients join a queue for fully booked outreach clinics and receive instant notifications when appointments become available.
It also has scalability and white-labelling capacity, so can expand should the program be successful.
Healthengine CEO, Dan Stinton, said:
“At Healthengine, our mission is to improve access to healthcare by helping Australians connect with all providers – no matter where they live. Through our collaboration with HNECC PHN and HealthWISE, we’re helping patients access services when and where they need them, while supporting providers with innovative technology to help them operate more efficiently, giving them more time to focus on care.”
Ms Williams admits it won’t meet everyone’s needs and they will continue to have program officers to support people with limited digital access. She hopes they get back more time to help their clients in other ways.
“I’m definitely interested in the saving in person power – in what that program officer can do in the time that they’re not phoning people, because our capacity is limited,” she concluded.