Clínica Alemana Osorno in Chile leverages digital transformation to improve patient care and healthcare efficiency. The clinic’s digital communication workflows enhance patient experiences, workforce productivity, and access to care across its specialties. By introducing an interoperability platform and integrated care applications, administrative tasks are streamlined for physicians, and patients benefit from improved appointment scheduling and telehealth services. These changes have led to increased consultations, reduced waiting times, higher patient satisfaction, and a transformative impact on the community.
In the southern region of Chile, Clínica Alemana Osorno is harnessing the capabilities of digital transformation to revolutionize patient care and enhance the operational effectiveness of healthcare providers. By integrating digital communication workflows and embracing connected care, the clinic is ushering in a new era of improved patient experiences, heightened workforce efficiency, and expanded care accessibility across its array of 46 medical specialties and four facilities.
Clínica Alemana Osorno stands as a prominent healthcare establishment, handling over 300,000 outpatient appointments annually. As a stalwart private institution situated in the northern Patagonia Los Lagos Region for over half a century, the clinic boasts a roster of 200+ medical specialists, a workforce of 450 employees, and an impressive staff growth rate of 20% per annum.
The clinic’s paramount goal is to revolve healthcare activities around patients and their requirements, aiming to provide superlative healthcare of the highest quality.
Confronting Challenges: Healthcare Sector Competition and Care Accessibility
Private hospitals in Chile are immersed in fierce competition for both patients and adept medical practitioners. Patients possess the liberty to opt for their preferred hospitals, while doctors have the autonomy to select their workplaces. Furthermore, the concentration of healthcare providers in the capital city, Santiago, necessitates that patients in the southern region undertake arduous journeys for specialized medical treatments.
To surmount these challenges and carve out a distinct identity, Clínica Alemana Osorno endeavors to deliver an unparalleled experience that surpasses its regional counterparts. The clinic prioritizes amplifying patient contentment, enhancing staff productivity, and addressing geographical obstacles. This multifaceted approach involves making southern Chile an appealing place to reside, offering easily accessible, high-quality care that caters to the local community’s needs, all the while ensuring manageable workloads for care teams and physicians.
The Solution: Fostering Health Information Exchange and Introducing Integrated Care Applications
In response to these challenges, Clínica Alemana Osorno has executed an extensive digital transformation strategy. The year 2022 witnessed the rollout of collaborative care solutions and patient engagement measures. This strategic move followed a meticulous preparatory phase that spanned 2021, encompassing data migration, the creation of an interoperability platform, data integration and aggregation, and the establishment of digital pathways for both patients and physicians atop the platform.
The interoperability platform stands as the cornerstone of a successful digital transformation, underpinning all applications that facilitate interaction among care teams and physicians, enabling them to engage effectively with patients. This platform also facilitates the integration of applications with other operational systems within the clinic.
A Highly Efficient Workforce
The interoperability platform and associated applications have streamlined administrative tasks for clinic physicians, minimizing reliance on paper-based processes and the hassle of scouring multiple systems for patient information. Empowered with a digital dashboard that presents comprehensive patient data in one location, physicians operate with heightened efficiency, prioritize patient needs, and cultivate more robust patient relationships.
Scheduling, a historically thorny issue, has been resolved by consolidating all appointments and tasks within a singular system. This innovation empowers medical staff to efficiently plan their workdays, thereby optimizing their time allocation for high-value tasks.
Dr. Marko Gjuranovic, a urologist at Clínica Alemana Osorno, testifies, “I work better now that I have the support of this system. It integrates all my tasks into my schedule, allowing me to better plan my days and be better prepared for all my activities. As a result, I feel I’m more productive and don’t waste any time on unnecessary organizational tasks.”
Enhanced Care Accessibility
The introduction of an online appointment scheduling system has substantially elevated convenience and accessibility for clinic patients. The ability to schedule, modify, or cancel appointments at any time has curtailed no-show instances, optimizing the utilization of medical resources and treatment spaces. Consequently, waiting times have diminished, offering the Osorno community expedited access to essential healthcare.
Furthermore, the interoperability platform and applications have democratized care access by centralizing healthcare data and enabling data analysis through algorithms. This functionality pinpoints individuals at risk, triggering automated invitations for checkups or preventative measures, thereby contributing to the broader enhancement of community health.
Dr. Patricia Martinez, Medical Director at Clínica Alemana Osorno, emphasizes, “Managing patients’ health data in one system allows us to support patients to engage in their healthcare. This will have a positive impact on prevention, as patients can receive automated reminders for their medical checkup and other preventive offerings from the clinic.”
Moreover, telehealth services have substantially broadened care accessibility by facilitating virtual consultations, obviating or minimizing the need for in-person visits. Patients can access healthcare from the comfort of their homes through secure virtual channels, obviating the necessity of travel and waiting times. This innovation ensures that a larger populace can avail themselves of convenient healthcare services.
The Impact of Cohesive Systems and a Holistic Patient View
The implementation of a health information exchange platform and patient engagement applications has yielded remarkable benefits for Clínica Alemana Osorno. The clinic has witnessed escalated medical consultations, laboratory tests, and imaging studies. It has evolved into a sought-after employer, attracting a greater number of physicians. Most notably, patient experience has witnessed a substantial improvement, with a Net Promoter Score soaring to 3.7 times its pre-transformation value. Other achievements encompass a no-show rate of 9.2%, a 39% reduction in waiting times, a 15% boost in workforce efficiency, and an impressive 84% patient satisfaction rate.
Prospects
The clinic’s trajectory involves continuous platform development and the introduction of novel application functionalities. CEO Leonidas Rosas envisions the clinic attaining its strategic objective of doubling treatment offerings by 2028, leveraging the platform and its applications. This is a long-term endeavor that profoundly impacts physicians, patients, and the entire community. Clínica Alemana Osorno is firmly on the path to realizing its vision of enhancing the quality of life in southern Chile.
