9Solutions system provides centralised patient transport management in Central Finland Central Hospital

In March 2019, Central Finland Central Hospital has deployed the 9Solutions system for managing patient transports. The solution includes the Smooth user interface for making patient transport orders and the Smooth Lite mobile application for receiving and processing the orders. The solution is used in internal patient transports in the whole Central Finland Central Hospital area and it manages up to 1,600 patient transport orders per week.

According to Miia Paatola, materials handling manager in the patient logistics unit of the Central Finland Central Hospital, one of the greatest benefits is the central management of patient transports, which makes the work of all parties easier and more efficient:

“The system has enabled centralisation in patient transport management, because the system can be controlled directly in one user interface. It’s easy to use, informative and it displays the overall status of orders,’ said Paatola.

Patient transports were previously arranged in a decentralised manner – nursing staff produced the service each in their own unit. In practice, nurses made patient transport service orders by phone or paper slips. Managing the activity became challenging when there were a lot of simultaneous transports. Continuously ringing phones also disturbed the work of patient transporters as well as the patients.

Practical experiences of the patient transport management system

Now a nurse can order a patient transport in the Smooth user interface instead of calling by phone, and information about the order is forwarded directly to the Smooth Lite mobile application of all patient transporters. A transporter can reserve the nearest or urgent transport from the task list in the application. When a patient transporter reserves a transport task, the orderer of the transport and the other transporters can see that the task is underway. This makes it easier to organise work, helps reduce redundant work and saves time by eliminating long round trips. A nurse can order a patient transport easily on the workstation from the Smooth user interface.

Managing transport orders with the Smooth Lite mobile application

Smooth Lite is an easy-to-use mobile application for receiving and processing transport orders.

Transport orders are displayed directly in the Smooth Lite mobile application of the patient transporter
The order includes patient and transport information, patient bed location and potential other information
Information about task status is forwarded also to other employees, which makes it easier to coordinate the work and reduces unnecessary and redundant work