How Jessa Hospital created more empowered patients
The Breast Cancer Clinic at Jessa Hospital is made up of 19 specialists who treat 340 new breast cancer cases each year. With the high volume of incoming patients and a finite amount of resources, the clinic was looking for a way to heighten productivity while bettering their patients’ overall quality of life. Supported by the University UHasselt, they were able to tackle the challenge head-on — in a scientifically rigorous way.
Overwhelmed With Multidisciplinary Care, Patients Find Comfort in Insight
The Breast Cancer Clinic was known for offering its patients a holistic approach to care, including specialists ranging from medical oncologists to plastic surgeons to psychologists on its care team. But with that wide-lens approach came a tendency for patients to feel overloaded with options — and information.
Especially when more than a few different specialists were involved, it was easy for patients to feel responsible for tracking everything and making sure the details of their experiences — from check-ups to procedures to treatments — were understood by every practitioner on their team.
The clinicians knew that that feeling of responsibility was adding an extra layer of stress to their patients’ lives, so they deployed Awell to help them lessen it.
Within the app, each practitioner was able to add notes, questionnaires, and information about what the next step in the pathway would be, keeping all members of a patient’s care team informed. But it wasn’t just the practitioners who had access to the information — it was the patients too.
With one single, digital database of relevant information, including questionnaires, patients were able to access and fill out the forms that kept their pathway moving along seamlessly. And not only could they answer those questionnaires from anywhere, at any time, but now they also had a secure and organized system at their fingertips — giving them the information they needed, right when they needed it.
“Thanks to the alerts, the onco-coaches (who are the nurses that carry out pathway counselling for oncological patients) know whenever something is bothering a patient. They can use this information to support the patient, enabling the onco-coaches to act in a more targeted and tailor-made way for each individual patient.” - Sylvana Snoekx – Jessa Hospital
No More Passive Waiting — Now, Patients Seek Out Answers On Their Own
With busyness a common trait in the Breast Cancer Clinic, patients with questions about their procedures, new symptoms, or adverse treatment reactions were often left waiting for their care team to call back. While practitioners did their best to provide answers and assurance as quickly as possible, they knew that there was oftentimes a gap — and they wanted to find a solution to close it.
With the technology of Awell behind them, care teams were able to identify that solution — and offer patients a way to better their own healthcare experience.
Inside the app, patients could learn about the diagnoses, procedures, and treatments relevant to their individual pathway as they came up, arming them with the knowledge they needed to understand what was happening.
But beyond just access to medical insight, the app also gave them an actionable way to cope with new symptoms and adverse reactions.
Whether experiencing nausea from chemotherapy or soreness after a procedure, patients were able to note down their side effects inside the app — and then receive instant tips for how to deal with them. Not only did this work to empower patients, but it also worked to keep their care teams informed; as soon as a note about a side effect was made, all relevant care practitioners would be notified.
With the seamless flow of updates coming in and answers going out, patients transformed from passive bystanders on their medical journey to active participants — wielding the tools they needed to answer their own questions and feel more in control of the process as a whole.
Give your patients the gift of empowerment
Awell isn’t just a tool for healthcare productivity. It’s a tool for turning questions into answers — and answers into solutions.
