Siun sote – the joint municipal authority for North Karelia social and health services – is the first hospital district in Finland to implement the Medanets messaging solution that is designed for clinical work. After the addition of Siun sote, up to 75% of Finnish hospital districts use one or more Medanets mobile solutions.
Siun sote will deploy the messaging feature of the Medanets app in home-care and centralised service housing units for both nurse-nurse and nurse-doctor messaging. They piloted the solution in autumn 2021 and made the procurement decision in summer 2022.
The procurement was motivated by the objective to streamline processes through digital solutions as part of Siun sote’s structural reform. The customer felt that a secure messaging solution would improve communication between nurses and doctors significantly.
The Medanets messaging tool acts as a secure link between healthcare professionals, enabling seamless communication, also in real-time. It improves productivity and mobility by supporting a quick and easy sharing of patient data. The solution:
- can be integrated into the hospital’s EHR or implemented as a stand-alone solution
- is a CE-marked medical device.
Nurses working at the healthcare units of Siun sote had difficulties reaching the doctors. To consult a doctor, the nurse had to call the health centre, queue over the telephone and leave a call-back request. The doctor was informed of the need to consult through an intermediary, which often interrupted their work. And when the doctor called back, the call interrupted the nurse’s current tasks. Lots of interruptions, too many links in the chain.
Today, when a patient’s condition requires medical consultation, the solution sends the nurse’s message directly to the physician in charge. The Medanets app displays the messages in a patient-specific messaging group that includes the treating physician and nurses as members. No intermediaries are needed, and the recipient can mark the message as received when they have time – however, within the same day. Non-urgent messages are still sent through other services.
More efficient nursing consultation and improved quality
According to feedback, the Medanets app has improved nursing consultation and the quality of care: consultations are timely, which reduces unnecessary transfers to hospitals and transportation costs. Removing all intermediaries from the consultation process has also relieved the nurses’ mental stress and reduced the number of interruptions for all professionals.
The user experience has been positive: based on a survey of users, the overall rating of the app was 9.4 (on a scale of 0–10) and the recommendation index 76 (-100 – +100).
Source: Medanets