6 Belgian Hospitals Digitize their On-Call Schedules with PetalMD

Located in the province of Liège, Belgium, the CHC care network is known for making the patient the center of its priorities and strategic developments. That’s part of the reason why the medical management team chose to eliminate the “paper” management of on-call rosters and to implement an entirely digitized on-call list for the 6 hospitals making up their care network.

Thanks to this initiative, the CHC care network now ensures that accurate information regarding on-call schedules is available to its 961 physicians and independent providers. 

How digitizing medical on-call lists can better meet the needs of patients?

In an emergency, it’s paramount that hospital staff quickly reach the right on-call physician. But when the tools in place cannot ensure that the information shared is accurate or up-to-date (especially when information is written on paper), a physician is sometimes called by mistake. This happens, for example, when the initial on-call schedule is changed without the information being communicated.

Not only is this situation a waste of time for the physician contacted by mistake and for the administrative staff, but it can affect the quality of care provided to the patient, especially when it’s an emergency.

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How long does a full transition to digital on-call schedules take for a care network like CHC?

The time required to digitize every on-call schedule and eliminate the use of paper greatly depends on the size of the care network and the processes already in place.

Regarding the size factor, the CHC care network has more than 1,000 acute care beds and 700 resident beds. As for the CHC processes, according to Julien Pierard, project manager for the medical department of the CHC care network, there were as many lists for on-call duties and management processes as there were specialties in the network.

In the end, the complete deployment of digital on-call rosters for the CHC care network took place over a period of approximately one year. The first site, the Heusy Hospital, was deployed over a four-month period to test the application and the procedures. For each of the other five hospitals, the deployment took between one and two months.

" To improve the quality of care offered by our network, we wanted to modernize the management of our medical on-call lists, as it was not optimal. What we wanted was a centralized on-call list, always up to date and accessible at all times by all physicians and employees in the network. These objectives were achieved by acquiring the solution developed by PetalMD."

Dr Quentin Dulière, 
Assistant Medical Director of the CHC care network

The CHC care network: an example to follow regarding the adoption of an innovation

Hospital managers who want to embrace technological innovation but are faced with many challenges and obstacles can use the CHC care network as an example. Indeed, to facilitate the adoption of a digital health technology such as the one selected by the CHC care network, you could explore the following steps:

1. Identify the weaknesses and errors in the existing on-call role management processes;
2. Search for a technological innovation that would address these weaknesses and errors specifically;
3. Find a digital health leader to deploy this technological innovation and actively collaborate with them;
4. Be ready to modify the processes in place so that the technological innovation can truly be adopted and effective.

By following these steps, the CHC care network has optimized the processes for reaching on-call physicians and has allowed administrative staff to save valuable time, all for the benefit of patients.

Download the Case Study - CHC Care Network

Would you like more info on the solution chosen by the CHC care network and its deployment? Feel free to download the complete case study below.