Digital Redesign of Outpatient Bookings

Initiative Type
Service Improvement
Status
Deliver
Added
Last updated

Summary

Access to specialist outpatient services are critical for the health of the Gold Coast community. The current inefficient and slow bookings and referrals systems at outpatient services has led the Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) to change the digital ecosystem by designing Kirra, which replaces these multiple systems with a single, fully integrated web application. 

It was developed to address the pressures of the department, such as increasing demand, staffing constraints, duplication of work in multiple systems and fiscal pressure. We decided on human centred design and product teams that would lead to digital liberation and free staff up form mundane tasks such as double entering. 

The following were addressed and included in the scope: 

  • digital foundations
  • product management
  • contemporary platforms
  • cross functional teams
  • design system
  • Agile methodology

We are continuing to enhance this and adding to it in every month and that is the reason why the Agile development methodology and codesign with the building is really beneficial. 

The next steps will be to consolidate the scheduling view, create deeper integration, use advanced analytics embedded in workflows, be even more consumer facing and scale it to other areas at the GCUH. 

Key dates
Jan 2023
Jun 2024
Implementation sites
Gold Coast University Hospital

Aim

  • to improve patient access to Outpatient Services
  • to empower the Bookings and Referral Centre to meet patients' needs for outpatient booking and scheduling

Benefits

  • better decision making through real time information availability
  • improved access through easy-to-use digital solutions
  • automating appointment confirmations has translated to 1.6 full time equivalent (FTE) of staff time released for other tasks

Background

The Bookings and Referrals Centre (BARC) staff receive approximately 2,500 phone calls per week at the GCUH. To address all these different types of enquiries. the team previously had to access more than seven distinct systems, making the provision of patient care inefficient and slow.

Solutions Implemented

  • created an internal team called Health CODE (Centre of Digital Experience).
  • created a digital integration hub, into where real time messages are transformed 
  • create our own modern applications
  • created a robotic process automation team that has access to a software bot to complete highly repetitive tasks and allows us to interact with legacy systems
  • web transformation team to develop consistent web applications
  • created an advanced analytics team to use machine learning for better decisions
  • created digital workflows team (software developers) 

 

 

 

Evaluation and Results

Productivity has increased by 7.5%, which equals the equivalent of 37,000 extra calls that could be processed per year. 

Customer Experience Survey showed that it improved from 3.3/5 to 4.5/5 in three months.

There has been a 25% increase in staff satisfaction.

Agile methodology allows for monthly enhancement and continuous, incremental value creation.

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Key contact

Dr Adam Brand
Medical Director Digital and Information
Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service
1300 744 284
Adam.Brand@health.qld.gov.au