UZ Gent improves care with QuestManager

About this case

Ghent University Hospital (UZ Ghent) is one of the largest and most specialized hospitals in Flanders. With nearly 7,000 employees, UZ Ghent provides high-quality and highly specialized care in all medical disciplines.

From Paper to Digital

UZ Ghent has embraced QuestManager since 2022. The IT department spearheads the implementation within medical services, working closely with individual departments while sharing expertise across the organization.

For successful implementation, UZ Ghent prioritizes:

• Patient-Centricity: Before implementation, they assess the added value of digital questionnaires for patients. Communicating these benefits motivates patients to complete the questionnaires.
• Usability and Integration: Patients can access all information through a user-friendly portal, mijn.uzgent.be. Questionnaires are integrated into the portal, allowing patients to complete them and view results. This centralized approach streamlines information access.

The patient portal utilizes the nationwide login mechanism, the Belgian Federal Authentication Service (FAS), which is also employed by other government agencies, such as the tax office, banks, insurance companies, mutual insurance societies, and so forth. This login method is well-known among citizens and is straightforward to use. Consequently, it lowers the barrier to logging in and completing the questionnaires. As a result, UZ Gent achieves a high response rate of 65 percent.

• Recognition: All services at Ghent University Hospital (UZ Gent) utilize the patient portal mijn.uzgent.be. Consequently, a large number of patients are already familiar with the portal. They can access information from all departments involved in their care through this portal.
• Process Change: Digitizing questionnaires is a complex process that requires careful planning and consideration before implementation. It goes beyond simply replacing paper questionnaires with digital versions. The entire process, from inviting patients to analyzing data, is digitized. For this process to be successful, it is crucial that medical services embrace the new way of working. Effective implementation leads to more efficient and accurate collaboration, improves the quality of care, and saves costs.
• Collaboration between multiple stakeholders: patients, their loved ones, medical specialists, and patient associations are involved in the implementation process. This ensures that the process is optimally designed and aligns as closely as possible with the treatment.

PsoPlus: the Value Based Healthcare-approach

UZ Ghent utilizes QuestManager to streamline its specialized psoriasis consultations, known as PsoPlus®, exemplifying a Value Based Healthcare approach.

Through QuestManager, healthcare providers seamlessly collect relevant patient data, including validated questionnaires, to facilitate integrated clinical follow-up.

Benefits for Patients and Healthcare Providers:

• Personalized Care: By gathering essential patient information before the initial consultation, healthcare providers can tailor their approach to each patient’s unique needs and context, enabling the development of personalized treatment plans. In PsoPlus, information is gathered via QuestManager questionnaires, from which healthcare providers derive key indicators. They also share self-care information and instructions with patients through the application.
• Optimized Resource Utilization: Pre-collecting information streamlines consultations, allowing more time to address patients’ specific concerns.

Future

UZ Ghent is committed to further developing outpatient care in response to the changing healthcare landscape, which is characterized by staff shortages and limited financial resources. However, the hospital is determined to maintain its high standards of quality. QuestManager is a crucial tool in facilitating this transition. Therefore, UZ Ghent intends to expand the use of QuestManager.

What are the benefits of using QuestManager?

For the hospital, QuestManager serves as an efficient and reliable tool for information sharing and patient data collection. This data is harnessed to equip healthcare professionals with a deeper understanding of patients’ care needs. The insights gained streamline consultations, dedicating more time to address issues that genuinely matter to patients. Prior to the initial consultation, specialists can gain a comprehensive overview of the patient’s well-being, enabling them to anticipate areas requiring assistance. This facilitates targeted and personalized patient care tailored to their specific needs.

Additional Strengths of QuestManager Implementation at UZ Ghent:

• Extensive integration capabilities with an existing patient portal
• Automated questionnaire deployment, eliminating the need for manual intervention by healthcare professionals.
• QuestManager offers the flexibility to customize the platform’s look & feel to align with UZ Ghent’s branding and visual identity.
• Smart dashboarding that helps care providers to focus on the actual outcomes of a questionnaire
• Advanced questionnaire building tools
• Extensive data extraction and inclusion in existing medical systems