A visit to the doctor’s office can be as taxing as the reason for the infirmity itself. Patients complain about long wait times not only to see the physician, but also for records and results.
Oftentimes, no matter how competent the administrative staff is and how many hours they work, there is also inaccurate information. And paper. Lots of paper.
Fragmented Care and the Burden of Extra Paperwork
Head-scratching as it may be, the reality is that paperwork is still part of the norm in many modern medical offices – contributing to lengthy wait times and a lackluster patient experience. Many of us, if not all, have experienced this.
So, what’s the reason for all of this? It’s something called fragmentation of care, where the doctor’s office, medical facility, the lab tests, the lab equipment even, and each specialty is managed independently. There are associated administrative functions that are mismatched between each point, and, as such, each point adds an additional cost.
In the 34 countries where it operates, EPI-USE – one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent HR and payroll SAP specialists – saw that the dominant medical record companies were focused more on the billing and not so much on the patient.
An App to Integrate Fragmented Care
To combat these costs and improve patient experience, EPI-USE developed LogBox – an app that connects healthcare professionals to their patients and allows patients to securely share their information with their healthcare professionals electronically.
This patient-centric digital solution, built on SAP Extension Suite, facilitates the patient journey by making the check-in process easier. Patients enter their information once into the system where it is stored securely, allowing the patient to control where and to whom that information is shared among various different care-provider specialty offices.
Further enhancements of the system include seamless pre-admissions, a clinical case collaboration tool for multidisciplinary teams, a form editor tool to allow for customizable clinical databases, theater and waiting list modules, multidisciplinary team meetings, and discharge summaries.
Interoperability with other systems facilitates the exchange of data between various systems – from billing to radiology systems and hospital systems – reducing check-in time and more. All of this may be invisible to the patient, but it will certainly contribute to a more positive patient journey.
Making a Difference by Ending the Paper Chase
After deploying LogBox, EPI-USE saw the following improvements across the board:
- A more than 30% increase in self check-ins
- Over 280,000 healthcare and patient user accounts created
- A 66% reduction in referral wait times – down from 15 minutes to under five minutes
“The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to change the way we deliver care to patients, and the LogBox team’s rapid response in adapting the technology to meet our evolving requirements has been remarkable,” said Dr. Sue Trager, CEO, Wits Donald Gordon Medical Center.
Now, it’s just a matter of time until paper-heavy doctor’s offices will also invest in digital services. It will help them reduce overhead costs and manage more patients, which, in turn, will help them increase their revenue and, just as importantly, generate stress-free patient experiences.
To learn more about EPI-USE’s solution, check out its SAP Innovation Awards pitch deck.
Rajshree Chauhan and Michael Kure are SAP Global Marketing contributors.
