How digitalization is changing healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up digitalization in many industries, including healthcare. The adoption of digital technologies has been a bit slower in healthcare, mainly due to the lack of time and challenges connected to the involvement of health. When people’s lives are on the line, there is not much time to try new approaches.

However, the pandemic with its restrictions further highlighted the need for digital transformation. New technologies like patient portals, electronic health records, or field service apps allow healthcare providers and hospitals to work efficiently without endangering patients’ safety even in these trying times.

Digital technologies are making healthcare more accessible to patients

Thanks to the rise of telemedicine, people with less severe conditions or chronic issues don’t need to spend time in waiting rooms. They can access their information via patient portals without having to call their doctor. The use of AI can also help monitor, diagnose, or predict diseases.

But hospitals aren’t the only ones who profit from digitalization. Home healthcare providers and community healthcare organizations can also benefit from new technologies. Perhaps the most helpful tool that can improve the quality of their services are field service mobile apps. Let us show you how.

How going digital transformed a major community healthcare organization

Nurse Maude Association is a major community healthcare provider in New Zealand. The organization aims to improve the lives of those they care for and support overburdened hospitals. They provide personal care, domestic assistance, and specialty nursing so that their clients can remain independent and live safely at home.

The organization has more than 1,200 employees in the field. To keep track of their schedule, activities, and visits, Nurse Maude used a paper-based system. However, it can be very challenging to supervise so many employees and manage their schedules. To improve their efficiency, the organization decided to switch from analog to digital and start using Resco’s Field Service 2.0 mobile solution.

This allows the organization to plan routes and monitor worker location in real-time, generate automated schedules with live updates about changes for workers, create and fill out patient forms directly in the app and much more. The best part is that the users don’t even need to have internet access. The app works even in areas with no connection.

Better data leads to better processes

Nurse Maude has two different types of employees in the field who use the Resco app. The first group is support workers. The second group, clinical workers, consists of nurses, counselors, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists. Both groups use the app to record the details of their visits, provide work

status updates, and access information about clients. The organization can analyze the recorded data and use it to improve its processes and services.

All the things mentioned above add up to significant time savings as well as increased efficiency and accuracy. Thanks to Resco’s app, the field workers from Nurse Maude are able to complete 5 000 patient visits a day and share real-time data from their visits with their superiors. Clinical data accuracy also improved, and communication within the organization became much clearer. If you want to learn more about how Resco helped Nurse Maude become more efficient, you can read the full case study.