Fingermark’s ‘Florence’ Focuses on Patient Experience

Fingermark’s ‘Florence’ Focuses on Patient Experience at HiNZ 2017

A simple equipment and software solution that dramatically improves patient experience provided a winning formula for Fingermark Health at this year’s HiNZ conference.

More than 900 delegates attended the Health Informatics New Zealand conference in Rotorua from November 1-3.

Fingermark Health CEO David Hepburn used the annual event to launch patient-flow product, Florence.

Hepburn presented at the conference about the implementation of the system at a North Island District Health Board in a session titled ‘Bringing the Air NZ Check-in Experience to the Patient’.

Live for three months, the new patient flow system involves self check-in kiosks and enables the patient to be directed to one of eight waiting rooms.

The patient tracking module, due to go-live within the next three weeks, allows patients to be tracked through multiple events within their visit and see wait time status. The solution will maximise the patient’s time and give the clinic time to optimise the patient’s journey.

Results so far show 44% of patients use the kiosks on their first visit and 80% of return patients go straight to the kiosk to check-in. This has significantly reduced queues at busy times.

“The airline industry has shown the way to better passenger experience,” Hepburn says.

“We have managed to develop a solution and prove that this can also work in health to deliver a better patient experience.

“At HiNZ, I was hopeful of getting three to four leads or next customers, but I had more than ten key sector leaders search me out after that presentation to hear my pitch and ask me to go see them.”

“It’s been extraordinary: a really enjoyable few days.”

Hepburn says it was great to have CIOs and influential clinicians at HiNZ as they are key decision-makers.

Day one’s keynote speakers, Dave Snowden from Cognitive Edge and e-Patient Dave deBronkart, started the conference with an emphasis on improving patient experience of the healthcare system.

“That’s the fundamental drive behind Florence and in the presentation I was able to articulate is that it’s quite a simple concept,” Hepburn explains.

“Most of the conversations I have had involved people saying, ‘I can see it’s a simple solution that improves patient experience, how can I do it?’.”

Formed 12 years ago, Fingermark is based in Havelock North and employs five people in its Health division. Hepburn says the big point of difference with the company’s competitors is that it provides cloud-based software.

Implementations of Florence involve some initial investment in hardware and then a monthly subscription fee.

“It’s a no-brainer to give patients the opportunity to not join a queue and communicate with them in a more transparent way while they are visiting clinics,” says Hepburn.

“Our next steps are to demonstrate the value of Patient Tracking and develop a mobile app for patient visits.”

ENDS

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