There are now more and more apps in healthcare, especially for patients with chronic diseases such as COPD and atrial fibrillation. But there are also more and more apps available for healthcare workers, for example to support them mentally. The new app from the ‘s Heeren Loo team mainly concerns the effective exchange of information to (flex) employees. This information is often already in the electronic client file, but not every flex worker always has direct access to it.
Information at a glance
In addition to information about clients, new colleagues also want to know which colleagues they will meet and in which house they will end up. The ready-set-go development team would like to link all this information to the working hours of a flex employee so that they can access it via a time-bound code.
Researcher Tara Verstappen from ‘s Heeren Loo says: “The information that flex workers need most immediately is about the clients. For example, think of the do’s and don’ts. You want to know that someone is sleeping in a certain room and would like you to gently wake them up. Can he make his own breakfast afterwards, or not? What about brushing your teeth? Is anyone afraid of dogs? If this information is missed, the consequences can sometimes be too great. So you want to be able to see such information at a glance.”
Ready-set-go app
With the new app ‘Ready-set-go’, the new flex worker has access to such information. The chairman of the hackathon jury already praised the ‘s Heeren Loo team in 2021 for their strong presentation and client perspective. He was actually sure that this innovation was really going to happen and that seems to be the case in 2023.
On the VGN website we read: ‘Based on the outcomes of the sessions and in co-creation with stakeholders, ‘s Heeren Loo developed so-called wireframes, a kind of blueprint for displaying information. With these wireframes, the developers are now looking for suppliers: who is the most suitable party to develop this app with? Soon the developers want to show the first prototype.
Scaling up
The aim is for the innovation to reach the market and be scaled up as much as possible. The output of the sessions with the flex workers is therefore made available to other healthcare organizations. Eventually, the blueprint will become available sector-wide. Because the intention is that soon every flex worker in the Netherlands will have the right information before and during the first shift at a new location. Project manager Martin van Veluw: “In this way, the employees are optimally informed and the work can be done relaxed.”