Solimar Systems Streamlines Patient Education Delivery, Boosts Nurse Productivity
A globally renowned healthcare provider sought to optimize a manual process to assemble customized patient education packets. This complex workflow detracted nurses from more vital care, required extensive pre-printed inventory, and risked outdated info reaching patients.
By integrating Solimar Systems’ automated solution, nurses simply submit digital requests for patient booklets, which are now dynamically created and printed overnight. This eliminated 2 hours per week previously spent manually processing packets per nurse. It also removed the need to manage pre-printed stock, ensuring timely and up-to-date information would reach the patients.
The Heavy Toll of Manual Assembly
Nurses manually gathered documents from a library of 34 pre-printed brochures, pamphlets, and templates to serve each patient’s unique needs. They would collate packets, number pages, and generate tables of contents. This required 8-10 minutes per 20+ packets built weekly – meaning 2+ hours diverted from patient care.
Compounding this inefficiency, the pre-printed repository demanded extensive oversight, including:
- Ordering inventory for each item
- Tracking stock levels
- Monitoring version control
- Shipping to warehouse
- Storing for easy access
- Prepping items for nurse requests
Such exhaustive oversight carried over into basic warehouse costs. The human legwork of preparing, managing, and distributing the items added significant labor expenses from $25-40 hourly rates.
And even despite these efforts, using aged pre-printed materials meant patients could still receive outdated information if supplies of new versions hadn’t fully replaced old stock.
Healthcare Staff Praise Enhanced Workflow
The impact of Solimar’s optimized workflow has garnered glowing feedback from the provider’s nursing and support teams:
“I am pleased with the new system. It makes mailing educational materials to the patient quick and easy.
”
DOS Team (Desk Operations Specialist)
“It is a smooth process, and it’s great to know the materials will be mailed out that evening and received by patients quickly.
”
DOS Team (Desk Operations Specialist)
“It saves us much time to complete the process of sending patients educational materials right through Epic. A vital part of maintaining a virtual care program is facilitating sending our patients written education materials electronically. Nurses are satisfied as they can reference and speak to the packet as they work to educate our patients.
”
Kris, Primary Care Clinical Nurse Specialist
Transitioning to Automated Digital Assembly
Solimar implemented a fully digital workflow leveraging its SOLindexer and Rubika automation tools to resolve these issues. This system simplifies nurses’ work while also generating significant efficiency gains behind the scenes.
Now, nurses simply open communication templates, select needed materials for each patient, and submit digital requests. Automation immediately takes over:
- SOLindexer extracts data to identify content for assembly.
- Rubika pulls the selected pages, letter templates, and other items to build custom packets.
- Packets are automatically numbered and tabulated, and a personalized letter with table of contents is created in a PDF. ReadyPDF creates one version for printing and a second PDF for electronic delivery. The print-ready PDFs are collected and batched for in-house overnight printing, bookmaking, and mailing via USPS.
- Electronic versions are archived, and PDF links are emailed to the recipients.
By enabling on-demand printing straight from source files, Solimar’s workflow also eliminates the challenges of pre-printed inventory management. The latest accurate versions automatically populate each new packet – ending outdated material distribution.
With these upgrades, nurses save nearly 2 hours weekly, refocusing their time on patient care instead of collating packets. Behind the scenes, staff productivity also improves through reduced labor and oversight to manage physical inventory.
Solimar gave back vital hours to nurses by eliminating intensive manual work while generating behind-the-scenes productivity lifts. This case illustrates the power of automation and digitization not just to streamline workflows but to unlock staff efficiency to better serve customers – whether patients or clients.
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For more information, call the Solimar Sales Team at +1.619.849.2800.