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Digitizing healthcare logistics

Low-Code apps provide process support during entire client journey at GGZ inGeest

Reduce administrative pressure with Low-Code

It has been a pain point for years: mental health waiting lists. Clients often have to wait months before they can be seen. This also applies to GGZ inGeest. In order to serve clients faster and more efficiently, this healthcare institution decided to completely digitize the healthcare logistics process surrounding the inflow and outflow of clients with Mendix Low-Code and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

  • Limited automation support
    Many manual operations and error-prone entries in different systems
  • Meeting Tree Standard
    Insurers’ guidelines as a strategic goal
  • Digitization as part of improvement plan
    Robotization and automation healthcare logistics process key spearhead

Manual and error-prone data entry

GGZ inGeest is a medium-sized mental health care provider in the Amsterdam and Kennemerland region. The institution has several (outpatient) clinics and provides outpatient care to people with mental health issues. It employs some 1,800 people, both practitioners and support staff.

Clients who register at one of the GGZ inGeest should be helped as quickly and well as possible. Their client data must be entered and their care needs correctly interpreted. Next, it is important to find the right practitioner and schedule appointments between client and practitioner.

The healthcare logistics process at GGZ inGeest had limited support from automation. This resulted in many manual operations and error-prone entry work in various systems. As a result, it cost staff spend a lot of time emailing and calling to get clients in the right place. Also did not contribute to GGZ inGeest’s desire to meet the Treek standard, a standard set by insurers for waiting times in healthcare.

Digitization central part of improvement plan

In response to increasing financial and staffing pressures, GGZ inGeest an improvement plan. The goal was to make the organization function more efficiently and reduce wait times. An important part of this was digitizing the healthcare logistics process around the inflow, throughput and outflow of clients. Robotization and automation were important starting points here.

GGZ inGeest chose UiPath for robotization and Mendix low-code for application development. The chosen solutions are quickly adaptable, making it easy to respond to changing laws, regulations and organizational changes. The institution then started looking for experts who could support them in this regard. After market research, they chose Bizzomate and Tacstone.

Klaas Nieuwhof, ICT director of GGZ InGeest: “Digitization plays a important role in the extensive improvement program we will be implementing within our institution over the next two years. By investing in back-office applications as an ICT department, we are creating the ideal preconditions to reduce client processing time and significantly increase the efficiency of our organization in the coming years. We partnered with the combination of Bizzomate and Tacstone Technology because they have the technology, expertise and experience to support this digitization project from start to finish.”

Service design workshops
Bizzomate and Tacstone Technology started the digitization process by mapping all systems and tools at the institution. They also analyzed where the pain points and bottlenecks were in various service design workshops and looked at how best to support work processes.

Then Bizzomate started digitizing the intake process. The first application serves to support the client care process. This secures care logistics processes and introduces task-oriented work. This allows the institution to get clear on exactly where the client is in the treatment process.

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High involvement of the shop floor

Using the Mendix low-code platform, the first version of the application was able to go live within just three months. The application will be used initially by 150 support staff and in the future by some 850 practitioners.

The support staff is enthusiastic about the first version. Because of Bizzomate’s agile approach, they are closely involved in development. This gives them the opportunity to redesign their work processes and make long-desired improvements around informing referrers and clients.

Moreover, the application already integrates seamlessly with InGeest’s current application landscape, such as e-mail, the electronic client file (ECD) and the General Data Management Code (AGB) registry. Staff can handle referrals from one central environment and more efficient and task-oriented collaboration across sites. They can also better see through which communication channels they can best be contacted.

RPA vendor Tacstone Technology is initially concerned with automating client enrollment in the ECD. Mark de Poorter, partner at Tacstone Technology: “Automating the enrollment process contributes greatly to reducing the administrative burden for GGZ InGeest employees. Fewer errors are made when enrolling clients and the institution can do more with the same number of staff. This gives them space to focus more on their core task: providing the best mental health care.”

Joppe van Gisbergen, partner at Bizzomate: “It takes decisiveness and vision in a traditional environment like healthcare not to choose for a ready-made product but for a flexible customized solution based on Mendix low-code and RPA. We are very much looking forward to taking up this challenging project together with the GGZ InGeest team. We are convinced that with our knowledge of digitizing and optimizing business processes, we will have a great impact on improving the inflow, throughput and outflow process of clients of GGZ inGeest in the next two years so that they are helped better and faster.”

Nieuwhof adds: “Thanks to Bizzomate’s thorough approach in the preliminary phase, we already have a much better idea of how to further optimize our work processes. Together we have formulated a number of important objectives including better information provision for clients and practitioners, getting clients in the right place faster, reducing administrative burden and cost savings. With Bizzomate and Tacstone on board, I am confident that we will eventually fully realize these objectives. We have already made a good start with the digitization of the intake process.”

Making your own appointments in the future
An important part of the follow-up process will be a scheduling application. As a result, the institution’s treatment capacity is better understood and the precious time of available practitioners is utilized in the best possible way.

By providing them with insight into the availability of practitioners, clients can then digitally schedule an appointment with a practitioner at a time convenient to them, for example. The Mendix platform is ideally suited to achieve these goals as well.

Related:

  • Increased staff involvement in digitization
    Agile working method engages employees and increases support
  • Seamless integration
    App works with current application landscape including email, ECD and AGB registry
  • Centralized environment ensures efficiency
    Collaboration, insight and communication between multiple sites better enabled

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