The development of COVID-19 vaccines is only one battle in the war against the pandemic. Now, as healthcare organizations worldwide strive to inoculate frontline employees and patients, scheduling vaccination appointments is emerging as a considerable challenge. So, with a complicated mission and an urgent timeline, how can hospitals and clinics efficiently and effectively execute the world’s largest vaccination initiative?
The answer may well include an automated appointment booking solution that’s now available to users of InterSystems TrakCare. In fact, the technology has already helped one large health system manage vaccinations for thousands of frontline healthcare workers, all but eliminating the time and resources typically required to undertake such an effort.
Healthcare organizations can book COVID-19 vaccination appointments through TrakCare, which leverages existing data to develop eligible patient cohorts, automatically book appointments at an internal facility, and then notify each individual. They can then securely login to a portal, TrakCare Personal Community, to rebook their appointment time and location to fit their schedule.
The solution integrates vaccination data with each individual’s clinical record within TrakCare. If the vaccine requires several shots, TrakCare also ensures appointments for the second dose occur on time, sending reminders to patients as necessary. The appointment booking solution’s data integration capabilities could help healthcare organizations track and manage their vaccine supplies.
But how, precisely, does automated appointment booking aid the fight against COVID-19?
- More efficient resource management. Patient cohort creation (or acceptance of a cohort file created in another system) streamlines eligibility questions from the outset. Call centers can take five to seven minutes to book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, but automated technology empowers organizations to bypass that process, saving time and money.
- A better patient experience. With the power to manage their appointments via phone or computer, patients can choose what works best for them. They can perform this task entirely online, unless they opt to call a representative. If a healthcare organization chooses, automated notifications can further ease the process.
- Results at scale. When a healthcare organization is responsible for vaccinating tens of thousands of employees and millions of patients, mistakes add up. The booking solution simplifies the process, providing better results, fewer errors, and a full schedule of vaccination appointments.
- Actionable data. Vaccination information enters the electronic patient record within TrakCare. This enables clinicians to provide more informed care, while IT staff get the data they need to refine vaccination cohorts.
- Interoperability. Connected data sets up healthcare organizations and patients for life during and after the pandemic. TrakCare’s interoperability capabilities allow users to share a patient’s vaccination status with other systems, including general practitioners and community care organizations, so they know who’s protected.
- Immediate access. Because the solution is already available within TrakCare, there’s no need for a complex or time-consuming implementation, as a minimal configuration of Personal Community can be deployed in weeks.
After COVID-19, the solution promises to remain a valuable tool in everything from influenza vaccination campaigns to appointment booking for every kind of patient. Overcoming the pandemic is merely the first—and perhaps most critical—use case.
To learn how you can leverage the TrakCare automated appointment booking solution, read more or contact your InterSystems representative today.
This story originally appeared the March 3, 2021- OnTrak News Flash No.7