Waiting lists

QE II implements new tool for wait list management

HALIFAX, N.S. – To improve its management of surgical  waiting lists, the Capital District Health Authority of Nova Scotia will implement Axcess.Rx, from AdapCS Canada Corp., of Kingston, Ont. The software system will be installed in 66 surgical practices in the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, the largest health sciences centre east of Montreal.

The unique software tool assists physicians in the preparation, prioritization and booking of patients, while enabling administrative staff to streamline patient management processes and allocate time and resources more efficiently. Axcess Rx also enables hospitals to meet government requirements for tracking and reporting of waiting times.

Axcess.Rx was conceived and developed by Dr. John Marshall (pictured at left), a long-time neurosurgeon and past chief of staff at Kingston General Hospital. The technology forms the basis of AdapCS Canada Corp., of Kingston, Ont., which markets Axcess.Rx and other software solutions and consulting services to the healthcare sector. Axcess.Rx was developed and piloted at Kingston General Hospital and has been successfully used at Kingston General and Hotel Dieu hospitals in Kingston for more than three years.

“This technology gives us the opportunity to be national leaders in waiting list management,” said Dr. Michael Dunbar, assistant professor of surgery at Dalhousie University. “We see Axcess.Rx as a powerful solution for managing patient waiting times and hospital resources.”

“This sale represents a significant percentage of the province’s surgical volume,” said Dr. Marshall, president and CEO of AdapCS Canada (pictured at left). “Halifax has been a ground-breaker in understanding the challenges of waiting lists, and I am delighted that our technology will play an integral role in meeting those challenges.”

The new software tool will be used by up to 300 people in the healthcare centre, with full implementation expected to be completed by early July.

Axcess Rx allows users to accomplish the following:

• Create a means by which hospitals can understand the demand for their services and resources in real time.
• Ensure that data on patients waiting for services is gathered in a standardized manner and contains required data elements.
• Ensure a standardized means by which the relative urgency of all patients waiting for services can be identified.
• Improve physician and other provider’s efficiency by creating systems to streamline patient preparation and selection.
• Provide a means by which individual patients or groups of patients can be given accurate predictions of when they might receive a service.
• Prevent service cancellations by ensuring full patient preparation and appropriate alignment of resources.
• Improve operating room throughput by better patient preparation and selection.
• Improve supply chain management on the basis of real time data on service demand.
• Inform and improve staffing and resource planning on the basis of past and present ability to meet demand for service.
• Facilitate efficient and automated reporting to Provincial Registries as required.

For more information, see www.adapcscanada.com