Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute, Trivandrum, Kerala, minimized the COVID-19 risk factors and expanded the reach among patients during the pandemic using Datamate’s Ellíder Vconsult Teleconsultation solution.
Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute, Trivandrum, Kerala, is a 400-bedded tertiary care NABH-accredited hospital known for its excellence in healthcare service delivery. Inaugurated in 2005, the hospital has eminent doctors and other highly dedicated medical professionals handling more than 40+ departments. One of Kerala’s leading hospitals, Ananthapuri’s goal is to set new trends and bring changes in healthcare services that society will cherish and earnestly seek. The hospital started creating a secure technology infrastructure from the early days of establishment, with plans of digitalization and automation in place to streamline its services and operations.
As a long-term technology partner of Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute, Datamate has been delivering solutions and services to the hospital to support the hospital’s roadmap of technology vision. Datamate and Ananthapuri Hospitals first began working together in 2005 by implementing Mediware Hospital Management System (Mediware HMS) at the hospital. Implementing an automation solution made the hospital’s operations secure, faster and efficient since the beginning. The extended collaboration between Datamate and Ananthapuri Hospitals continued in the later years through annual maintenance contract, customizations of the Mediware HMS, equipment interfacing, appointment booking mobile application and various other managed services.
Business challenges
With the unpredictable outbreak of COVID-19, Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute faced challenges for service delivery like other hospitals. Some of the primary challenges faced by the hospital included the following:
- Increased human interaction among the healthcare professionals and patients that predominantly augmented the risk of spread of COVID-19 virus among them
- Challenges to optimize the usage of available assets and resources to meet the increasing demand for medical care during COVID-19
- Inability to deliver the continuum of care to the patients that require regular monitoring, especially with chronic illness, pregnancy, elderly or immunocompromised as they are at more risk of exposure to COVID-19 virus
- Difficulty in delivering care in inaccessible areas or isolated regions.
- Challenges in information sharing about critical medical cases, health status updates or health education to patients
- Reduction in revenue due to decrease in outpatient visits to the hospital during COVID-19 pandemic
Goals
As a hospital that has always embraced technology for healthcare delivery since its beginning, Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute embarked on an extended partnership with Datamate on the next plateau of technology – teleconsultation. Once implemented, the hospital is expected to reap the following benefits:
- Expanded reach of hospital’s services among the masses during COVID-19 pandemic
- Reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 virus through social interaction
- Optimize the usage of assets and resources to their maximum potential
- Provision to deliver medical care to the comfort of people’s home
- Accelerate information sharing, medical access and monitoring through technology
Solution: Taking the leap through teleconsultation
In April 2020, Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute turned to its IT partner Datamate to help, configure and deliver a teleconsultation solution to mitigate the business challenges. The hospital chose Ellíder Vconsult, a teleconsultation offering indigenously developed by Datamate, as the solution. Datamate’s highly successful, more than a decade of relationship with the hospital and its reputation for delivering high-quality solutions and services made the hospital confidently choose Ellíder Vconsult. Ellíder Vconsult is designed for quick deployment and value for money.
Remote implementation
Ellíder Vconsult Teleconsultation Solution was viable for the existing Mediware HMS at the hospital and was easily integrated with the hospital’s Electronic Medical Record, with no single point of failure.
“The new system (Ellíder Vconsult) took minimal time for configuration and is in perfect sync with our Hospital Management System,” said Padmashree Prof. Dr. A. Marthanda Pillai, Chairman and Managing Director of Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute.
Team Datamate managed the project end-to-end, from design, customization, installation, configuration, deployment to onsite training of hospital’s staff in using the solution remotely. The hospital did not experience any downtime during the implementation.
“Congratulations for your excellent remote implementation, finishing the work on time and within our budget,” added Padmashree Prof. Dr. A. Marthanda Pillai, Chairman and Managing Director of the hospital.
Results
“The solution (Ellíder Vconsult) exceeded all of our expectations for success,” according to the Chairman and Managing Director of the hospital, Padmashree Prof. Dr. A. Marthanda Pillai.
- The hospital crossed 300 teleconsultations among 24 doctors in the first month (April 2020) of the launch using Ellíder Vconsult Teleconsultation solution.
- The solution reduced the workloads of doctors and other medical staff as a significant share of outpatient visits shifted online.
- The solution complemented the safe implementation of COVID-19 protocols without any performance bottlenecks, reducing the possibility of transmitting the COVID-19 virus between healthcare professionals and patients through interaction.
- The solution increased the reach of services of the hospital to remote places and people online.
- The services facilitated regular monitoring of patients with chronic illness without visiting the hospital.
- The information sharing with the patients became faster when the consultations turned online.
- The solution also raked in a new stream of revenue for the hospital as new patients from remote regions booked and took consultations online from the hospitals.
- The optimization of assets and resources and the performance has improved significantly.
In short, with the introduction of Ellíder Vconsult Teleconsultation Solution, the journey has been virtually trouble-free for Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute. Datamate has incorporated better flexibility and automation into the hospital’s IT landscape through the offering.
Currently, Datamate continues to provide support as-needed basis to accommodate the growing needs of scalability. “I recommend Ellíder Vconsult Teleconsultation Solution to all hospitals,” said Padmashree Prof. Dr. A. Marthanda Pillai, Chairman and Managing Director of Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute in a testimonial offered to Datamate.
For demonstration and sales inquiries of Ellíder Vconsult Teleconsultation Solution, write to sales@datamateindia.com.
The new system (Ellíder Vconsult) took minimal time for configuration and is in perfect sync with our Hospital Management System.
Padmashree Prof. Dr. A. Marthanda Pillai
Chairman and Managing Director
Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute
The solution (Ellíder Vconsult) exceeded all of our expectations for success.
Padmashree Prof. Dr. A. Marthanda Pillai
Chairman and Managing Director
Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Institute