InterSystems announced that its Application Partner Grapevine Solutions has enabled St. Vincent’s Hospital Group to reduce their Did Not Attend (DNA) rates by 30% using their Defero messaging application. Grapevine also received a ‘Best Use of IT’ commendation for Defero at the prestigious Irish Healthcare Awards 2009.
St. Vincent’s Hospital Group improves business operations by 30% using Defero messaging application based on InterSystems Caché
InterSystems are pleased to announce that its Application Partner Grapevine Solutions has enabled St. Vincent’s Hospital Group to reduce their Did Not Attend (DNA) rates by 30% using their Defero messaging application. Grapevine also received a ‘Best Use of IT’ commendation for Defero at the prestigious Irish Healthcare Awards 2009.
Defero is a messaging application that was developed on the InterSystems Caché® high performance object database. Defero was designed to make it very easy for users to send text messages to notify and remind patients of appointments, but it provides many more opportunities to communicate cost-effectively with patients, staff, and others. St Vincent’s receives approximately 143,000 patients each year, and with an average DNA rate of 23%, this equates to just over 30,000 missed or rescheduled appointments. Since Defero was introduced, the group’s DNA rate has been reduced by 30% (Dec 2009). The HSE estimates the cost of each missed appointment to be €80, so in a full year the group expect missed appointments to be reduced to just over 20,000, bringing significant cost savings in the region of €750,000.
Like most other hospitals, St. Vincent’s had previously overbooked appointment slots, for example allowing 50 to be made with the expectation that only 30 appointments would be met. Now that the hospital uses Defero more patients remember to attend their appointment and rescheduling is more efficient as patients reply earlier when they cannot attend. This means that the hospital can better manage the ratio of new patients to returning patients, reduce over-booking, and optimise the use of their care provider and resource availability. Over time the group expect this to have a positive effect on reducing patient waiting lists.
St Vincent’s already connect their healthcare applications using InterSystems Ensemble®, a seamless platform for integration and the development of connected applications. Therefore, the hospital’s integration service supplier BlueNote Limited created an Ensemble interface between the hospital’s Patient Administration System (PAS) and Defero. This enables the users to access the PAS information on demand. Other hospital services also use the Defero Contacts Module, for example the Nurse Bank uses it to support the scheduling of over 400 nursing & healthcare staff. St Vincent’s envisages using Defero for other communication purposes including within the hospital’s contingency plans during a major emergency.
“This is a good example of how developing applications with Caché enables our partners to innovate and answer the customer’s need. Every hospital wants to improve patient services and make cost savings,” said Phil Birchall, Healthcare Business Development Director, InterSystems. Birchall adds, “We are delighted that our partners, Grapevine and BlueNote, have used Caché and Ensemble to provide St Vincent’s with a versatile service with measurable business value.
Terry Byrne, Grapevine Managing Director says, “Working with InterSystems we hope to build on the success we have had in St. Vincent’s and provide the same benefits and cost savings to other Irish and UK hospitals who have similar problems with missed appointments.”
Jim Brennan, BlueNote Managing Director said “InterSystems Ensemble provided an excellent framework to analyse, gather and transmit the Patient Booking details in a fast, secure and cost-effective way. We are working to provide similar integration in other sites.”
About InterSystems:
InterSystems Corporation is the worldwide leader in software for connected healthcare. With headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and offices in 23 countries, InterSystems provides innovative products that enable fast development, deployment, and integration of enterprise-class applications.
InterSystems Caché® is a high performance object database that makes applications faster and more scalable. InterSystems Ensemble® is seamless platform for integration and the development of connected applications. InterSystems DeepSee™ is software that makes it possible to embed real-time business intelligence in transactional applications, enabling better operational decisions. InterSystems HealthShare™ is a platform that enables the fastest creation of an Electronic Health Record for regional or national health information exchange. InterSystems TrakCare™ is a connected healthcare information system that is Web-based and rapidly delivers the benefits of an Electronic Patient Record. For more information, visit www.InterSystems.com.uk.
A free, fully functional, no-time-limit evaluation version of Caché can be downloaded or requested on DVD from the InterSystems Web site.
About Grapevine Solutions:
Grapevine Solutions is a leading Application Partner of InterSystems, incorporating InterSystems technology into its cutting-edge solutions. With headquarters in Dublin, Grapevine develops innovative products, custom software solutions and provides consultancy for clients in the healthcare, public service, finance and communications industries.
Defero is a cost-effective & versatile messaging solution for Healthcare providers, enabling fast, efficient and timely 2-way communication with patients & staff.
About BlueNote Limited:
BlueNote Limited is an InterSystems Application Partner based in Dublin, Ireland. They were setup in 2003 to provide Consultancy, Project Management and Data Analysis Programming, and Integration Services – principally to the Healthcare Sector. BlueNote offer more than 30 years’ experience in IT, including implementing systems in hospitals in Ireland, Europe and the United States.
