Strategic Plan Update: Add Communications Technology Upgrades (EHR, website, online booking): 2

Add Communications Technology Upgrades (EHR, website, online booking): 2

Right now, the vast majority of patient appointments at Mobile Care happen via phone call. We don’t have an option to book an appointment online, and if a patient wants to make an appointment on, for instance, the Asthma Van and the Dental Van, they have to call two separate phone numbers. In patient interviews, streamlining scheduling was a frequent topic.

Furthermore, if we want to increase the number of patients we see, we need to have a system that can handle increases across all clinics. So this item is important because it supports the success of other strategic plan items, including increasing patient capacity by 40%, expanding the Patient Services Department, and integrating referrals across all programs. I also wish to make the jobs of Patient Services, and clinic staff easier because the systems they have now take up a lot of their time. 

The specific actions that we are taking are: 

Part 1: Electronic Health Record Database (EHR) -(which we hope will include online booking) 

• interviewing patient services about how scheduling works and asking them for pain points that they see in their current system and working with clinic teams to make sure that whatever system we choose can be customized to their needs
• researching EHR systems 
• demo’ing EHR systems with salespeople from each system 
• presenting our findings to Matt, both clinic teams and patient services so they can help decide which system is best
• deciding how to integrate EHR into our website 
• training staff on using new EHR  

Part 2: Website 

• Ask staff about what kind of website we want to build/what it should accomplish 
• Based on how we choose to integrate EHR into our website, we will choose between building a website in-house (squarespace, wix etc) or outsourcing the website with custom code 
• Decide what content will live on website (outline format)
  • Present and get feedback from Matt/Ian and patient services
• Create a wireframe to organize above content 
  • Present and get feedback from Matt/Ian 
• Create design elements / photo and drop into wireframe 
  • Present and get feedback from more/all staff ? 
• Code/create live website 

We’ve interviewed clinic staff over the last few months about EHR pain points, and completed industry research to make sure we know what our ideal interface is. We’ve done the same process for a new website, a project we’re eager to launch after we identify our ideal EHR solution. When this is all accomplished, staff will have more time to focus on serving our current patients and acquiring new patients, and will spend less time organizing everything in a way that, while effective, is redundant and not super efficient. I also see this EHR upgrade creating harmony between the work each clinic does and increasing referrals between clinics (and outside of them). In regards to the website: MCC will be easier to find/access by both patients and donors, and from a communications standpoint, upgrading the website both aesthetically and content-wise will increase both patient and donor engagement. I see it driving more patients to us, which is the ultimate goal, and helping us receive more community awareness to support those patients. 

-Rachel Lessing, Communications + Development Manager