Mount Alvernia Hospital Elevates Holistic Healthcare with OutSystems

Using the low-code platform, the hospital's in-house developers saved half the time it typically takes to develop applications for staff, patients and visitors.

SINGAPORE, Feb. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Mount Alvernia Hospital has partnered with OutSystems, a global leader in high-performance low-code application development, to enhance its digitalisation efforts since the pandemic. Having developed 12 applications to deliver first-class user experiences for its internal staff and visitors, this strategic partnership is enabling the hospital to work towards its mission of providing more holistic healthcare through building speed-to-market solutions and overcoming roadblocks in their traditional code development process.

Mount Alverna's IT team selected OutSystems for its feature-rich capabilities. Among the successes so far, the in-house developer team, comprised of 13 individuals, developed apps such as the following:

• Staff Health System: This was first developed during COVID-19 to facilitate contact tracing as requested by the Ministry of Health. Subsequently, the system was enhanced to include other capabilities such as tracking staff vaccination status and appointment booking.
• Doctors Directory: Visitors can use this to locate doctors' clinic locations.
• Medical Records Tracking: Departments can request paper-based medical records from the medical records department and track out-going and returning of checked-out records.
• Electronic Meal Ordering: This allows patients and next-of-kins to order in-patient meals and send orders to the kitchen, with dietary restrictions built in.

Mount Alvernia Hospital's focus on delivering compassionate and holistic healthcare drives its need to empower its patients, doctors, and staff with the integration of technology. The newly developed applications have streamlined internal workflows for staff and enhanced the overall value delivered to patients and visitors. End users of the Staff Health System application even submitted the project for an international award with the Infection Control Association Singapore (ICAS) Congress, with the project being shortlisted.

"In the healthcare sector, being agile is key to tackling the rapidly evolving environment. Our partnership with OutSystems has proven instrumental in reducing development cycles and enhancing our speed-to-market capabilities, which is crucial as the fast-paced industry could demand that we develop a new app within one to two weeks," said Bruce Leong, Director, Technology and Strategy, Mount Alvernia Hospital. "We look forward to future collaboration with OutSystems to enhance patient experience and workflows, and stay prepared and agile to meet demands of a rapidly changing future."

Faced with challenges of delivering solutions with speed as traditional code development could not meet its demands for agility, the hospital aims to bridge the widening talent shortage for tech talent in developing new innovative solutions. With OutSystems, there are many plugins available that eliminate time in constructing functions from scratch when developing new applications.

As a result, Mount Alvernia Hospital's developers saved approximately half the time required (3 months) to create new applications, compared to traditional development platforms. Team morale also increased, as the low-code platform alleviated challenges posed to developers by the tedious and time-consuming nature of working with C++ and Java programs.        

"Navigating the talent gap has proven to be a critical challenge for many organisations involved in application development, especially with the scarcity of skilled developers. With our expertise in high-performance low-code, we are honoured to support Mount Alvernia Hospital's journey in leading digitalisation within the healthcare sector. This collaboration underscores our commitment to bolstering the efficiency of their developers, ultimately driving the hospital towards a more streamlined and innovative healthcare ecosystem," said Mark Weaser, Vice President of Asia Pacific at OutSystems.

The hospital is currently developing its Alvernia Connect Application which aims to engage both doctors and patients to automate manual processes, by enabling patients to fill paperwork digitally, check insurance claims, and more from their mobile phones. The first module is expected to be out in Q1 of 2024.

About OutSystems

OutSystems was founded in 2001 with the mission to give every organisation the power to innovate through software. The OutSystems high-performance low-code platform gives technology leaders and developers the tools to rapidly build and deploy their own business-critical applications. The company's network spans more than 700,000 community members, over 500 partners, and active customers in 79 countries across 21 industries. OutSystems is "The #1 Low-Code Platform^®" and a recognized leader by analysts, IT executives, business leaders, and developers around the world. Some of the most well-known brands use OutSystems to turn their big ideas into software that moves their business, people, and the world forward. Learn more at www.outsystems.com.

About Mount Alvernia Hospital

Mount Alvernia Hospital is a 300+ bed general private acute care not for-profit medical institution with tertiary medical capabilities, a 10-storey maternity and paediatric centre, two multi-disciplinary medical specialist centres and an integrated oncology services centre. The hospital is supported by over 1,200 accredited doctors, with more than 200 specialist doctors located on the campus. An exempt charity, the hospital's annual surplus goes into developing and upgrading the hospital, supporting the Assisi Hospice and community outreach activities.