Increase Hospital Efficiency
As a young doctor, Yap was frustrated by how poorly patient care was coordinated in hospitals. He co-founded the technology start-up in 2014 to provide a software solution that optimises workflows for mobile staff.
“As an integrated module of Patient Flow Manager, Medtasker strengthens communication, visibility and transparency within hospital administration, enabling the hospital to provide more efficient and effective patient care and resource utilisation” says Kate Burns, Telstra Health Hospitals Product Manager.
Improving patient care
Historically, hospital communication has been managed via a hodgepodge of pagers, DECT phones, whiteboard messages, post-it notes, unauthorised messaging apps and paper to-do lists– a method proven to be inefficient and which led to unsecure systems that all too often lead to miscommunications, delays in critical tasks being actioned, and overwhelmed staff.
“Medtasker’s real time duty directory ensures that the right message gets to the right person the first time. Having Medtasker in place, assists the doctors and admin staff to improve their response rates to clinical deterioration with automated escalations to ensure patients get appropriate care,” Yap says.
Doctors receive tasks on Medtasker via smartphones. With relevant patient information in hand, they can request tasks, delegate tasks to colleagues, receive test result notifications, get second opinions on clinical photographs in a secure and privacy-compliant way, and manage their workload on-the-go. Medtasker integrates with a range of hospital and clinical systems, improving communication not only for doctors and nurses, but also for orderlies, pharmacists and allied health clinicians.
“Everything is transparent. It encourages teamwork and accountability and assists hospital management to provide patients with faster and safer care,” Yap says.
Better resource management
Medtasker’s structured information allows hospital management a clear operational view via real-time dashboards, as well as a full audit trail of communications and historical activities.
“In just two weeks we’ve already saved over 24 hours of doctor time,” says Dr. Joel Iedema, Director of Medicine at Redland Hospital, Queensland - one of six hospitals across Australia and New Zealand currently using Medtasker.
The billing module allows clinicians to capture billing information directly at the bedside, therefore assisting the hospital in its effort to more expeditiously increase its revenue and ensure that funding is not lost from DVA, WorkCover, transport authorities or private health insurance admissions.
In addition, Medtasker reduces medico-legal risk by removing the temptation for hospital staff to resort to non-privacy compliant mechanisms, such as SMS or WhatsApp, to share patient information and images. Instead, all such information can be shared and accessed in one centralised, secure space and then uploaded to the patient record as appropriate.