Success Story

Daffodil helps one of UK’s largest private clinic chain implement a customized PMS to improve patient engagement and efficiency by 47%

titleImage

The client is one of the leading chain of clinics in the UK, dedicated to providing the best personalized healthcare with a breadth of surgical and medical expertise. With a focus on caring for patients with serious, complex illnesses, the clinic operates in more than 30 locations across the UK and cares for more than 100,000 people a year.

  • 30+ clinics integrated
  • 47% increase in efficiency
  • >30% code reused
  • 20 man months of effort saved

The Situation

A UK based leading healthcare center wanted to develop a multi-clinic practice management system (PMS) for their network of clinics spread across the UK, in order to streamline and automate medical practices for clinical staff, general practitioners (GPs), and consultants.

Following an unsuccessful alliance with an outsourcing partner, the client already had an elemental practice management system in place. Since the client had invested a substantial amount of time and effort in the PMS system, the requirement was to develop a new practice management solution by re-using the codebase that the previous solution had, wherever possible. Hence, the client was on the lookout for a technology partner who had an in-depth experience in developing software for the healthcare industry and understood the unique challenges of managing healthcare practice. The client chose Daffodil Software as we brought on the table our years of experience in the healthcare industry, hands-on knowledge of medical operations and expertise in developing breakthrough medical applications. On the development front, the requirement was to:

  • Develop a medical practice management system with different access levels and roles that can help their clinical staff and practitioners manage day- to-day clinical operations and patient data efficiently.
  • Develop varied integrated modules, such as appointment booking, client record management, stock management, referral management system etc. that can be integrated across multiple departments and clinics.
  • Integrate the system with different third-party software and hardware equipment such as pathology analyzers, picture archiving and communication system, billing system, barcodes etc.
  • Make the PMS compliant to HL7 standard. HL7 refers to a set of international standards for transfer of clinical and administrative data between software applications used by various healthcare providers.

The Solution

Daffodil’s team of business analysts, technology specialists and subject matter experts in the healthcare domain brought with them substantial software re-engineering and solution development expertise. Furthermore, they possessed an in-depth understanding of behind the scenes business logic for medical practice management solutions. Team Daffodil started by auditing the code-base of their existing solution to understand the part of code that can be used in the new PMS. Since the former solution was built on an outdated technology, it was necessary to refine the usable part of the code before integrating it with the newer one. As much as 30% of the code was reused in developing the new PMS, which resulted in significant savings in time, cost and development efforts. 

Daffodil software developed a cross platform web based PMS that automates the entire array of tasks related to day to day functioning of the clinic. The solution optimizes the workflows for physicians, nurses, and additional healthcare staff by streamlining administrative, financial, and clinical operations. We also developed modules for managing patient medical records, doctor-patient engagement, patient billing information, and enterprise-wide inventory management of medicine, supplies, and equipment.

seondRow

Team Daffodil also orchestrated a robust network architecture to integrate all the clinics, a secure, central DBMS for managing information from a single database, a patient portal to enable patients to access their clinical data, and comprehensive charting management features for physicians in the application. Keeping the data of patients was critical to ensure user confidentiality was protected at all times. This was evaluated and implemented at every stage of the design, build and testing phase of the project.  The following modules in the Practice Management System (PMS) were developed to streamline inpatient and outpatient tasks:

seondRow

Appointment Booking System: For booking appointments with GPs and consultants, the system was integrated with a calendar to check available slots. The appointments can be booked, depending upon availability of physicians at a point of time.

Patient Record Management: A complete medical history of the patients could be maintained electronically in the PMS. From profile to contact details to unique ID, there is a provision to record all the details for past medical history tracking.

Task Management: Based upon the roles, access rights were given to an individual in the PMS. For staff members, GPs, and consultants, the tasks can be managed according to access levels assigned to them in the practice management system.

seondRow

Patient pathology and Imaging: A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) was integrated that effectively manage samples and associated data. A two-way communication module was developed that allowed the PMS and analyzers to communicate with each other over the system.

Stock Management: To update and manage the clinical inventory, a module was designed wherein the respective clinical staff can have clear visibility of stock available and required for medical practices in future.

Referral Management System: A separate module was developed for end-users to schedule consultation with GPs and consultants. Also, the referral system was developed to be used by GPs for referring patients to consultants.

seondRow

The Impact

After the Practice Management System was deployed in multiple clinics, the client was able to bring the GPs, consultants, and internal staff under one platform. The client was able to route their patients to appropriate GPs or consultants, as per the case requirements.The application involved automation of different departments of the clinic and multiple integrations with different third-party software and hardware equipment such as pathology analyzers, picture archiving and communication system, billing system, barcodes etc. The user interface of the PMS was highly appreciated by the client, for the fact that it was highly intuitive and simple to be used by clinical staff members. With a single solution, the medical practices in the network of clinics were managed effectively, which also proved to be a cost- effective approach for the client.

  • 30+ clinics integrated
  • 47% increase in efficiency
  • >30% code reused
  • 20 man months of effort saved

 

“The breadth of knowledge and understanding that Daffodil’s team has is commendable. The final product that they have delivered have been implemented in all our clinics and has been applauded by all the frontline users. They have saved us a substantial amount of time and resources. When you work with Daffodil, you are working with the best engineering talent out there.”

CTO

Read Related Case Studies

Get in Touch

Sign up for a 30 min no-obligation strategic session with us

Let us understand your business objectives, set up initial milestones, and plan your software project.

At the end of this 30 min session, walk out with:
  • Validation of your project idea/ scope of your project
  • Actionable insights on which technology would suit your requirements
  • Industry specific best practices that can be applied to your project
  • Implementation and engagement plan of action
  • Ballpark estimate and time-frame for development