Irish healthcare software companies, Vitro Software and YellowSchedule have announced a new partnership to tackle the growing crisis of hospital waiting lists. The companies will merge their international expertise and experience to create a practical, swift implementation of a long-term solution to address this growing issue in Ireland and the UK with ‘SmartList’. Dr Ruth Barnes, Director of Commercial Operations for Vitro Software says, “Putting the patient at the heart of the ‘SmartList’ solution was essential to its design. It is critical for patients to be seen by care providers in a timely manner to avoid delayed diagnosis and deterioration of their conditions. We are using our international experience as a provider of Hospital Digital Medical Records and speciality solutions for Breast Screening and Mental Health to provide a software solution to the waiting list challenges Ireland faces. We feel that by Vitro Software working together with Yellow Schedule who are experts in their field will provide a long term solution for the waiting list challenges.

Vitro Software has extended its Breast Screening Digital Medical Record to now offer an end-to-end solution for Breast Screening organisations. In addition to the management of clinical information during the assessment process, the Vitro Digital Medical Record now includes client administration functionality and clinical management of the screening process. The Vitro Breast Screening solution can manage the entire screening process, from initial invitation to screening appointments, scheduling, client communications & reminders, follow up appointments and the management of the client's clinical documentation from start to finish. Vitro's end-to-end solution will help Breast Screening organisations eliminate paper, save time, reduce administrative workload including duplication of data entry, optimise client throughput and provide an improved service to their clients.

We continually improve the clinician experience in Vitro, as we now include advanced Voice Enablement in our Digital Medical Record with features such as Voice Control, Speech to Text & Notes Templating. Voice enablement saves a tremendous amount of time on administration, while a clinician might typically type 40 words per minute or less, they speak over 120 words per minute. Voice commands are at the user's own pace; there is no requirement to wait for the text to appear on screen. In addition to reducing the time take to complete notes, through the templating functionality, Vitro Voice encourages more complete & consistent notetaking, improving overall quality & making clinical coding easier.

Digitised records are a key component for successful healthcare. Paper-based records are not just inefficient and take up space, “they also carry the risk of spreading infection”, Nash said. There is a risk of them getting lost, Nash points out. It’s not unusual for hospitals to transfer records around cities “in the back of taxis and even the basket of bicycles”. That’s before you factor in the risks of doctors’ handwriting. EMR is a more efficient, lower-cost option for hospitals that includes the eradication of unnecessary duplicate tests and provides better outcomes for patients, he added. It’s also an area in which Ireland lags.

As we begin to see the COVID-19 restrictions lift in Ireland, our public hospital system will come under huge strain as it works to tackle waiting lists which were already the longest in Europe pre-crisis - they will have to operate at just 80% of capacity. The release valve for this pressure will in theory come from the private hospitals, under the agreement signed with the Irish government in March. The patients relevant medical history needs to be shared between hospitals in a secure & reliable way to reduce repeat diagnostic tests, risk and potential delays. Technology is the obvious answer, Vitro Software's PIM solution allows authorised clinicians to access a patients record using PCs or Tablets - a quick to implement system with minimal training requirements...