Client
Our client stands as a pioneering institution entirely dedicated to pediatric care. With an unwavering commitment to delivering safe, high-quality, and family-centered care, this children’s hospital has been the epicenter of numerous groundbreaking achievements in pediatric medicine. This legacy of innovation has not only enhanced pediatric healthcare but also saved countless young lives.
Challenge
Over the past decade, patient wait times for dermatology appointments have seen a steady increase, with some patients enduring delays of almost a year. This is especially distressing for parents with children who have skin conditions, taking a heavy emotional toll on families.
At our client’s hospital, the average wait time for an appointment was approximately 6 months. As a leading pediatric care provider, the hospital was committed to ensuring no patient would go without the care they needed.
The client wanted to reduce the wait time while providing efficient, cost-effective, and high-quality dermatology care. Their goal was to offer parents the flexibility of remote consultations if in-person appointments were unavailable in the near future. In this endeavor, the hospital turned to Hexaware for support.
Solution
Hexaware worked together with the client to create a strategy to improve access to care while addressing the long wait time for appointments.
The goal was to provide patients with the care they need at the time they need it.
Hexaware created a telemedicine application that allowed parents to securely communicate with their physician using technology that was both familiar and convenient – the smartphone.
A Mobile App for Parents’ Peace of Mind
The telemedicine app enabled patients and doctors to receive and provide care for children with dermatology issues.
How does the telemedicine app work?
For parents and patients:
Parents access the app by securely answering a series of questions that provide their child’s physician with a comprehensive description of the skin condition, mirroring an in-office consultation. The app then expertly guides them through a step-by-step process for capturing images of the condition, which are seamlessly forwarded to the physician’s office for diagnosis. Additionally, patients and parents can engage in direct messaging with their care providers, ensuring they receive the evaluations needed to initiate treatment.
For doctors and hospital staff:
On the healthcare provider’s side, doctors and hospital staff are instantly alerted to patient conditions, enabling them to seek further information, clarify concerns, or request additional images. Within the app, care providers can efficiently manage all their cases, establish priorities, and determine the next steps. This encompasses offering treatment options, scheduling follow-up appointments or referrals, sending prescriptions directly to pharmacies, and monitoring patient progress with precision.
Hexaware’s security team worked with the client to ensure that all photos and messages were encrypted and safely sent to the doctors without risking patient privacy.
Benefits
- The patient wait times for appointments were reduced from 6 months to 2 hours
- The diagnosis accuracy was at 90%, producing the same outcome as an in-office visit
- The telemedicine app received a 93% approval rate from participants
The telemedicine app allowed healthcare providers to extend their reach with respect to patient care, providing high quality, less expense, and greater access to their patients and their families.
Summary
Hexaware collaborated with a pioneering US pediatric hospital in the US to combat long dermatology appointment wait times. The result: wait times slashed from 6 months to 2 hours, 90% diagnostic accuracy, and a 93% approval rate for their telemedicine app. This innovation expanded access to top-tier care for patients and families.
