Global Health (ASX:GLH) has officially launched its new LifeCard Patient Portal, which helps patients prepare in advance of admittance to hospital.
It saves significant time through the pre-admission process and helps identify issues ahead of time that could cause last minute cancellations.
The new portal has been in field testing with five early adopters across Global Health’s clients.
Since adopting the new system, hospital clients have seen up to 50% of their pre-administrations being completed online within 6 months.
Mathew Cherian, CEO, commented: “This frees up administration staff to increase productivity in other areas.
“The portal can be a significant saving for hospitals with medical research reports estimating up to 60% of cancelled operations are avoidable.”
Increasing efficiency
Consumers have taken up self check-in methods in many different industries, hospitals and community clinics are no exception.
Health organisations should take advantage of this trend to lift utilisation and improve the overall patient experience.
Once a patient has completed an online admission form, all data is saved meaning a return visit to the hospital would only require the patient to review and update information as opposed to completing a whole new paper form.
Trial feedback
The North Eastern Community Hospital estimates that the online pre-admission form saves about 50% in terms of administration time, equating to around 15 minutes per patient.
This means the hospital has saved around 65 hours per month since January 2017, with last month seeing a time saving of around 80 hours.
Another trial user, Pennant Hills Day Surgery, reported that the LifeCard Patient Portal has been a time-saver and therefore a cost saver.
The surgery has seen an average time saving of 47 hours per month since March.
Analysis
The key outcome for Global Health will be the new revenue stream generated from the launch of LifeCard Patient Portal.
The new offering leverages the existing LifeCard product, which allows consumers to carry their medical information with them, anytime and anywhere.
Partners, such as hospitals and health centres can integrate the LifeCard personal health record and LifeCard Patient Portal into their existing website to streamline patient engagement.
This is yet another step forward in line with the company’s mission to transform the patient journey through software applications that connect clinicians and consumers.