Ramsay Health Care sees 38,000 patients opt into Ramsay Health Hub Patient Tracking

Ramsay Health Care has said 38,000 patients opted into Ramsay Health Hub Patient Tracking services following the introduction of the wristband capabilities at Waverley Private Hospital.

Ramsay Health Care recently introduced patient wristband scanning capabilities at Waverley Private Hospital as part of efforts to keep carers informed.

Aleksandra McNee, chief executive officer at Ramsay Health Care announced via LinkedIn the Ramsay Patient Tracking system is now live at Waverley Private Hospital. 

“This innovative wristband scanning process keeps carers and loved ones informed at every step of a patient's hospital journey.

“By harnessing automation, patients can actively participate in their healthcare experience, enhance communication, and support our hospital team in delivering top-quality care,” McNee said.

Dr Rachna Gandhi, chief transformation officer at Ramsay Health Care told Digital Nation more than 38,000 of its patients have opted into Ramsay Health Hub Patient Tracking.

“Some hospitals have anecdotally experienced at least a 50 percent reduction in calls from patients’ loved ones,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi said, “We wanted to improve visibility of the patient journey for next of kin so they can be updated on when their loved one is ready for discharge after day surgery procedures, or heading to a ward if they are staying for a longer period to recover. 

“We estimate there were an average of 1.2 phone calls per patient in our facilities where a patient’s next of kin or loved one would contact us to know when the patient was out of surgery or would be available for collection.”

Gandhi explained Ramsay Health Hub Patient Tracking lets patients opt-in to receive real-time SMS notifications to their person of choice, keeping them informed on surgery progress and discharge times.  

The technology works by triggering notifications from scanning patient wristbands throughout their surgical journey, using a mobile handheld device.

“We now have reliable data to understand the time it takes for patients to move through key points in the surgical process so we are able to understand where there are potential opportunities for streamlining our processes further to make the patient experience even better,” Gandhi said.

“This initiative has been well received and we are always looking for opportunities to further refine our system.”

Looking ahead, Gandhi said next steps include “looking to broaden the utility of Ramsay Health Hub Patient Tracking within our facilities.”

“For example, notifying the onsite pharmacy dispensary when a patient is to be discharged so that their medications can be ready for when they leave.”

“While there have been immediate benefits for our surgical patients, we will be investigating other use cases that may also benefit from having real-time, accurate data of patient flow through our facilities,” Gandhi said.