SmartList To Reduce Hospital Waiting Lists!
29th September 2021
Two Irish healthcare software companies – Vitro Software and YellowSchedule – have announced a new partnership to tackle the growing crisis of hospital waiting lists. Martina Skelly is co-founder and CEO of YellowSchedule and Dr Ruth Barnes is Director of Commercial Operations for Vitro Software.
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’.
The benefits of ‘SmartList’ include:
•25% waiting list reduction
•Reduce the number of no-show appointments (DNA’s) by over 50%
•25% estimated reduction in patient waiting times
•75% cost savings of administration overheads
It was recently reported by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) that over 900,000 Irish people are on hospital waiting lists, an increase of 124,000 since 2019. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has warned that the numbers waiting for either treatment or a consultation will soon increase to over one million patients. A long-term sustainable solution is urgently required to help manage waiting lists as numbers continue to rise.
The joint software solution, ‘SmartList’, enables end to end management of waiting lists. The solution can be utilised by hospitals to categorise patients based on clinical priority, and to identity those patients who can be cared for more quickly in the community, following consultant-led care plans. Utilising the ‘SmartList’ solution will lead to a reduction in waiting list sizes, a reduction in waiting times for patients and an improved patient experience during their time on waiting lists. Key to the solution is regular communication and updates for the patient, thereby reducing waiting list anxiety.
It is estimated, conservatively, that the implementation of ‘SmartList’ will result in an overall reduction of 25% across waiting list numbers, with fewer delays in diagnosis and patient waiting times., and significant healthcare savings, through a reduction in administration overheads and appointment no-shows which are also addressed by the solution.
Pictured: Martina Skelly, CEO of YellowSchedule from Castleconnell, Limerick and Dr Ruth Barnes, Director of Commercial Operations for Vitro Software from Stepaside, Dublin (pic. Paul Sherwood).