One of New Zealand’s largest general practices, Riccarton Clinic is a combined General Practice and Urgent Care clinic which provides healthcare services to over 18,500 enrolled patients, plus casual patients and visitors to Aotearoa. Riccarton Clinic also works closely with a range of complementary on-site specialist service providers.
The team at Riccarton Clinic have partnered with Ōtautahi health tech company Webtools to leverage modern technology to improve patient access to healthcare services and to reduce workload and administrative pressure for their staff.
In June, Riccarton Clinic implemented Centrik’s online appointment booking service, allowing enrolled patients to book an appointment with their preferred practitioner on a day and time that suits them. This was followed by the launch of Centrik’s Well consumer health app in July, providing patients with access to their health records and services at the clinic.
Riccarton Clinic’s Medical Director of Urgent Care, Dr Alistair Blomley, says, “The launch of Well has had a big impact with a reduction in patient phone calls to our staff, freeing up more time for them to focus on patient care. We’ve had incredibly positive feedback from patients too, with many commenting on how easy the app is to use. It’s also been a pleasure working with the Webtools team, who are very responsive.”
As a busy clinic serving enrolled patients as well as providing drop-in urgent care, streamlining patient access to healthcare services using the Well app and Centrik’s online booking has been invaluable. Appointments booked either online or via the app appear in the practitioner's appointment book in the practice management system (PMS), with standards-based integration using FHIR and the Medtech ALEX® platform.
Patients receive email confirmation of their appointment. From the app, patients will also receive two appointment reminders on their mobile device, one 24 hours before their appointment and another 30 minutes before. From the thirty-minute reminder, patients are prompted to check-in and answer screening questions.
This digital workflow means reception staff can be hands-off during the appointment booking process. During check-in the patient’s status is updated to ‘arrived’ in the PMS. For online bookings, Riccarton Clinic can configure which practitioners are available from within Centrik’s web console.
Along with appointment booking and repeat prescription requests, the Well app also allows patients to access their health record, view lab results and consult notes, and message the clinic. A trial of video consults is also underway which will allow patients to book and join the call either from within the app or online from their web browser.
Built using FHIR from the ground up, Centrik is interoperable and able to integrate with any source system that adheres to FHIR standards. For Riccarton Clinic this means that Centrik is ready to easily integrate with the on-site specialist care services to securely share patient data and provide a fully connected healthcare service.
Webtools Chief Growth Officer, Al Duncan, comments, “We’re excited to be partnering with Riccarton Clinic and to see the positive impact the launch of Well and online bookings is already having for their staff and patients. At Webtools, we’re on a mission to improve how healthcare is accessed and delivered and this partnership will be integral to how we continue to develop Centrik to deliver frictionless, ntegrated digital health services and improve patient outcomes.”
Along with the Well app, Centrik is also currently powering the white label The Doctors and Better Health Outcomes apps. The Doctors app is currently rolling out to Green Cross Health’s national network of medical centres as part of an innovation partnership between Webtools and Green Cross.
