The White-Yellow Cross uses 'mijnWGK' to improve collaboration with GPs, hospitals and patients

The White-Yellow Cross uses 'mijnWGK' to improve collaboration with GPs, hospitals and patients

Five years ago, the White-Yellow Cross (Wit-Gele Kruis - WGK) launched its online platform mijnWGK. Using this secure website, GPs, hospitals and patients can view the case notes made by the White-Yellow Cross nurses. To make this platform user-friendly on smartphones and to prepare for a new digital revolution in home care, the White-Yellow Cross recently selected a new IT partner. Inetum-Realdolmen helped with the update of the web application, is responsible for hosting and for maintenance, and also developed the mobile app for mijnWGK.

By using modern IT tools, the White-Yellow Cross makes quality care accessible and ensures quality care. mijnWGK brings the nurses as close as possible to the patients by digitally preparing part of the care. For this mijnWGK is securely connected to other medical care systems, including the White-Yellow Cross's Electronic Care Case Notes (Elektronisch Verpleeg Dossier - EVD), their care center, the hospitals' electronic patient case notes, the Collaborative Care Platform (Collaboratief Zorgplatform - CoZo), and other e-health sources. The basic idea is that the more information is known about the patient, the better the caregivers can adapt the care to suit the patient, leading to higher quality of patient care.

Tim Weltens

mijnWGK is clearly a success. It delivers huge added value for patients, for our nursing staff, and for GPs and hospitals. That is why we decided to make this software available to the entire home nursing sector.

Tim Weltens | Staff member for ICT & Innovation @ White-Yellow Cross

The origins of mijnWGK

Tim Weltens, staff member for ICT & Innovation with the White-Yellow Cross in Flanders, tells us why they launched mijnWGK: "We visit around 65,000 patients daily. This makes us the largest caregiver organization in the country. We have over 6,000 nurses who care for 150,000 different patients each year. On average, a patient will be looked after by five nurses. Sharing data efficiently internally is therefore vital. For this, our nurses use tablets with which they can note and consult all the information for each patient."

mijnWGK

"We were receiving requests from GPs and hospitals to view our case notes. This is because we record important information like blood pressure and temperature, as well as information about the physical and mental condition of each patient. At the time our internal system did not allow us to share this information easily and rapidly with external parties. This meant that our nurses had to note all the information on their tablet, and then a second time on paper so that the patient could take it along to an appointment with their doctor. That was not a very efficient way of working," adds Tim. "We therefore decided to build the mijnWGK online platform. The aim was to make it possible for other authorized parties to consult the patients' case notes easily and rapidly. We also included integration with programs used by GPs. When a GP opens up case notes in their own program, they can immediately see whether the patient is known to the White-Yellow Cross. If so, the doctor can instantly click through to our case notes."

"The average age of our patients is 78. This means they are frequently admitted to hospital. Because hospitals can read our case notes, they know from day one what kind of care the patient has been receiving at home. If necessary, the hospital can discuss with the nurse who cared for the patient whether to continue this treatment."

Transition to Inetum-Realdolmen

Inetum-Realdolmen now looks after maintenance of the application, since its migration to the Inetum-Realdolmen data center about a year ago. Inetum-Realdolmen ensures that all the data that nurses enter in their tablets is synchronized with a central server. The mijnWGK web application is consulted about 300 times every day by external parties. This means that each day there are 300 queries from doctors, nurses or patients that we do not need to answer, giving us more time to care for our patients," explains Tim.

Marketing via i-mens

Tim: "mijnWGK is clearly a success. It delivers huge added value for patients, for our nursing staff, and for GPs and hospitals. That is why we decided to make this software available to the entire home nursing sector. i-mens, another organization in our sector, will start working with it later in 2021. This means that our application has evolved into a program that can cover all home nursing care services. Our ambition is to help the entire home nursing care sector to progress. Currently, hospitals are experimenting with how they can reach patients at home. We want to support that and present our sector as a partner to GPs and hospitals, working to deliver the best possible care."

mijnWGK

Pioneers of home care

"There was no good system available to share the data from home care with other care providers. The White-Yellow Cross was really the pioneer with our mijnWGK," explains Tim. "We also want to give attention to family caregivers. Currently it is a difficult process for a family caregiver to view a patient's medical records. Via our mobile app it will be possible to add a family caregiver using their national ID number. This way they can see remotely what care is being provided. We are also busy working on a number of other projects. For example, we have a project underway where heart patients can enter updates that the cardiologist and our care center can follow in real time. Whenever the readings give cause for concern, our nursing staff in the care center will raise the alarm immediately."

"We are also starting up an innovation cell. This cell will be able to research our ideas and initiate projects. For example, some employees recently came up with the idea of using drones to send blood samples to the lab. Ideas that may seem way out there now are things we will likely take for granted in the future. We would love to be the pioneer in trying out these initiatives."

The best experience for patients

Tim: "The White-Yellow Cross wants to deliver more and better services to all patients, not just good home care. Our patients, for example, really like to know in advance who will be turning up on their doorstep. We also notice that the next generation of patients wants to be informed when a nurse has been held up and is late. Our aim with the app is to address the expectations of future generations. With the new app we can also ask our patients how satisfied they are, maybe using a scoring system with stars after each care session. Right now, we do an annual satisfaction survey on paper. That works well with the current generation. We are very aware that the next generation of over-sixties already know their way around a smartphone and expect this service to be managed digitally."

Collaboration with Inetum-Realdolmen

"Last year we used a public tender to find a new partner who was able to take over hosting the application in a secure environment. We were looking for a partner who could help us to completely overhaul the web application," explains Tim.

Tim Weltens

The collaboration with Inetum-Realdolmen runs smoothly, and we regard them as our partner for the future too.

Tim Weltens | Staff member for ICT & Innovation @ White-Yellow Cross

“Inetum-Realdolmen submitted a response which we liked, with the right technology and the right method. They also met our requirements for hosting and security for mobile applications. And they had already built a mobile application in the health sector. What's more, we knew that Inetum-Realdolmen is an authority on security of mobile applications. Given that the project is dealing with sensitive, personal information, that tipped the balance," explains Tim.

“The project started with the transfer to the server farm. Inetum-Realdolmen devised a scenario in which the installation was replicated and implemented in their data center. The main challenge in this transition was that we could not go offline for even a minute. In the end, it ran without a hitch. In addition, they chose to work with a new technology so that the updated web application and the mobile app can evolve in lockstep, because it was very important for us that both applications offer users the same experience. Another requirement that was resolved very nicely."

He concludes: "The collaboration with Inetum-Realdolmen runs smoothly, and we regard them as our partner for the future too. In addition, they translate our ideas into concrete designs and use these to further develop the application. I hope we will be able to move forward swiftly with all the new options that we have thought of for mijnWGK. We need to get together again soon for this."

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mijnWGK