Streamlining Patient Access Through Digital Service Model Redesign

Bon Secours Hospital Limerick was undergoing huge positive change with the move to a new state of the art 190 bed hospital building and the hospital-wide implementation of the Meditech Expanse EHR system. This created a need to take a new look at the administrative pathways in the hospital and leverage the improved digital functionality of the new systems. The management team wanted to design a new service delivery model for patient admissions that would reflect the patient centred design of the new hospital.

Perfect Practice worked with the team on the ground to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the existing processes and factored the hospital’s ambitious goal of doubling patient admissions into the service model design. We suggested a restructured Patient Admissions Department focused on core, high-impact functions, which immediately created new capacity within the existing team. Simultaneously, we recommended the creation of a new Health Informatics Department to manage the complex, hospital-wide transition from paper to digital records. Finally, we developed a detailed roadmap to digitalise all repetitive and back-office tasks, which included a framework for a digital patient communication strategy to streamline the patient journey and accelerate patient empowerment.

The implementation of our recommendations will revitalise the patient access process. The newly designed system leverages digital tools to drive substantial productivity gains freeing up staff to focus on critical, patient-facing tasks. This partnership successfully positioned Bon Secours Health System with a clear long-term vision for its informatics function, ready to embrace the EHR transition and sustain future growth and innovation.

The success of the strategic review was reflected in the feedback from their leadership: