More than a hundred healthcare professionals, software developers, designers, and students get together at Hacking Health cafe to reduce no-show rates at Eastern Health.
According to Statistics Canada, 17.8 percent of the population in Newfoundland and Labrador were aged 65 years or older in 2014, a number which escalated to 21.2 percent in 2016. This increasing proportion of seniors in a sparsely populated region has created a new set of challenges for the healthcare system in Newfoundland and Labrador. John Haggie, Minister of Health and Community Services, stated, “With the challenges facing Newfoundland and Labrador’s health care system today, innovation holds the promise of opportunities to drive meaningful change.”
The Cafe
On the eve of 23rd January 2019, more than a hundred healthcare professionals, software developers, designers, and students attended a cafe hosted by Eastern Health, Hacking Health St. John’s, and Bounce Health Innovation, to try and solve some of the challenging obstacles facing the healthcare industry. This event was the fourth and final one in a year-round series of cafes organized by Hacking Health St. John’s. These cafes bring together the digital health community to cultivate ideas and provide a casual environment where members get to network with the community, have open discussions and share their brain power to brainstorm potential solutions to problems pressing the sector.
Eastern Health, the largest health care provider in Atlantic Peninsula, partnered with Hacking Health St. John’s for this cafe to curb their no-show rates for appointments and develop new and innovative solutions to create a patient-centric environment. In light of its vision and mission, the theme of the cafe was set to “Optimizing Efficient Resource Utilization.” Dawn Mercer from Eastern Health stated during the introduction, “Eastern Health focuses on efficient use of resources. While Eastern Health tries to be as resource efficient, it still has a lot of issues with patients not showing up on time.” She added, “About 10 percent of our patients miss their appointments on an annual basis which translates to 96,000 missed appointments and procedures annually.”
What does it mean for the patient who missed an appointment? It means a missed opportunity.
Dawn Mercer
Eastern Health surveyed patients who had missed their appointments to understand why they were not able to show up. The revelations were:
- Patients forgot about their appointment due to the long wait time between booking date and appointment date.
- Other priorities emerged for the patient on the day of their appointment.
- The patient’s symptoms appeared to have been resolved.
- Patients experienced transportation difficulties on the day of their appointment.
Easter Health has tried different methods of reducing the no-show rates but with minimal improvement. “We are looking for a resolution for our no-shows. We want to redesign our approach.”
We need new ideas and discover how to infuse them.
Dawn Mercer
To engage the audience in a meaningful manner, Eastern Health had set up tables, each focusing on a core problem. The tables were divided into technology considerations, organizational elements, patient considerations, transportation considerations, and communications. Members of Eastern Health task force chaired these discussions and noted all the solutions and suggestions offered by the audience.
The task force members then presented their findings towards the end of the conversation. It was interesting to note that a recurring solution to all the core problems was to improve communication between Eastern Health and the patients, be it in the form of developing an app or providing better and more frequent reminders and notifications through phone calls, emails, and mails or an amalgamation of all said solutions.
The Hackathon
While the cafes allow people and ideas to mingle, it is the hackathon which allows people of different disciplines, from health professionals to software developers, to come together for a weekend and develop an actual solution for the problems discussed in the cafe series.
Started about seven years ago in Montreal, Hacking Health is an international movement to improve healthcare through diverse partnerships. Hacking Health St. John’s is one of the 53 active chapters of Hacking Health across 17 countries.
What does it mean for Newfoundland and Labrador?
As a province struck with a looming financial crisis, and a vast population of seniors that require medical attention, innovation is the key to solving these problems. Hacking Health not only facilitates communication between all the major stakeholders but brings them together in a collaborative environment to come up with novel solutions.
Many companies have successfully come out of theses hackathons; from software development companies focused on healthcare to companies that produced medical equipment to foster better medical treatment. These products and services have impacted the lives of several thousands of people by improving patients’ access to healthcare facilities.
Hacking Health St. John’s will be having their third hackathon in the first week of March 2019. Click here for more details.
The event was organized by Bounce Health Innovation, a catalyst for accelerating the growth of Newfoundland and Labrador’s emerging health innovation sector.
Photographs by Wooster Chen and Qing Dong