The amount of paperwork generated by routine healthcare administration is staggering.
With multiple forms required for even the most straight-forward of processes, and numerous compliance requirements, it is not surprising that hospitals and healthcare organisations have rooms filled to bursting with paper files dating back decades. Healthcare organisations which digitalise antiquated paper-based procedures reap benefits that go well beyond freeing up storage space, including:
- Reducing the administrative burden on their staff
- More secure yet more easily searchable systems
- Reduced risk of input errors, and
- Improved transparency across their systems.
Digital transformation and automation
At Cielo Costa, we recently built a digital solution to streamline work requests for a company which decontaminates surgical equipment for a leading independent healthcare provider.
The company operates five decontamination sites across the UK which deep-clean equipment from more than 50 hospitals and facilities. However, despite the size and scale of the operation, managers were still dealing with multiple types of paper forms sent from hospitals via fax. Our solution to their business challenge was simplicity itself – a single app to replace all of the cumbersome paperwork under one user-friendly SharePoint interface.
When a hospital staff member needs to lodge a request for equipment to be decontaminated, they access the app via their work intranet. They specify which of the five locations the equipment will be sent to and select an appropriate category for the request – for example, whether it is a general request or a job that needs to be fast-tracked. A reference number is then allocated.
Each decontamination team is provided with an overview of what is happening at their site. At a glance, they can see all unallocated requests, as well as jobs that need to be fast-tracked and the status of open requests – what has been actioned, completed, cancelled, in progress or pending. The hospitals are kept informed of status updates via automated emails.
Easier to track, easier to audit
It’s a small app that took our expert term just one month to build – but it has made a world of difference to our client.
There is now much less risk that sensitive information could be sent to the wrong person by mistake due to wrongly entering a fax number and it is no longer necessary to retain rooms full of paperwork. One database has replaced numerous forms in a system that is simpler to use and to audit.
Our app has successfully dealt with around 6,000 decontamination requests since it was launched in early 2021. We are now talking to other major UK healthcare organisations about building similar solutions for their systems.
If you need expert advice on digitalising processes at your organisation, we are here to help.
Exceptional Support
It’s important that by working with Cielo Costa on a support contract, that we become an extension of your team.
We hand-hold and resolve the support issues whilst at the same time taking a longer-term view on updates, tech enhancements and developments to make the tools more efficient more responsive and more agile for your business.
Our mission
At Cielo Costa, we are becoming the world’s most desired technology consultancy. When our clients seek a partner to help them overcome their business challenges by building a software solution, we are the first they think of.
