This year, the well-being area model introduced in Finland has brought significant changes to the previous social and healthcare structures that were the responsibility of municipalities.
When the goal is to ensure that social and healthcare services, as well as emergency services, effectively care for citizens throughout the entire well-being area, it is important that digital systems also function as intended.
Why would Vihta be particularly suited to promoting the daily operations of well-being areas? Here are four key reasons.
One of the fundamental pillars of the Vihta booking system is a special focus on data security reliability. Vihta continuously develops its own data security and ensures that personal information is kept where it belongs.
Vihta’s servers are run in Finnish data centers, where they are monitored and automatically monitored around the clock. The location of the centers in Finland also means that the data stays within the country’s borders. In addition, the servers can handle large numbers of users, which has enabled Vihta to make up to 120,000 bookings per day.
Thanks to the secure storage and transfer of information, well-being areas can use their own customer registers and grant professional rights to handle personal data on a site-specific basis. Strong customer authentication also increases data security, which can be achieved with Vihta, for example, through the use of the Finnish suomi.fi authentication service.
Currently, various systems are used in the health care units of different regions, which can easily make finding the right service and booking an appointment difficult for citizens.
With integration possibilities, Vihta can serve as the main booking system through which bookings and the required information are forwarded to the correct systems. Vihta can be integrated, for example, with chat and remote reception tools, so that those who need these services can automatically receive a link to the messaging service or remote reception. Another example is Vihta’s integration with the Omaolo system, which allows citizens to book appointments through Omaolo. The professional can manage the available times and bookings in the Vihta professional user interface. The customer can book an appointment for a coronavirus test, for example, after completing the symptom assessment in Omaolo. Vihta sends the customer confirmation and reminder messages.
In addition, Vihta clarifies professional login and streamlines work, as different authentication services, such as Azure AD authentication or Terveyskylä professional card login, can be used in the system through integration.
Complex systems and unclear information can sometimes lead to citizens booking appointments for services that do not fully meet their needs. Social and healthcare resources are also used unnecessarily when, for example, too long appointment times are accidentally booked for sample collection in relation to the required duration of the procedure.
In Vihta, customer-related medical history can be collected using an electronic online form. After filling in the form, the customer can be directed to book an appointment based on the answers to the right procedure, location, and time slot.
If Vihta is integrated with the region’s patient information system, examination requests can be searched for through interfaces, which enables customers to book appointments for services that are not otherwise publicly available. Based on the examination request, a booking right to the booking service can be created for the customer, and thus the customer can book an appointment for a referral-based examination within certain limits.
Vihta’s self-registration system also brings practicality to healthcare facilities in the well-being areas.
Through self-registration, citizens can register themselves at the reception either for an appointment or to wait in line for their turn. There are dedicated Vihta self-registration machines and display screens at the reception that show real-time booking and queue status. Self-registration also promotes the security of the reception, as citizens can be called in using their assigned queue numbers instead of traditional name calling.
The same system is visible to professionals in their workspaces, where they can see the booked appointment times and queue status of the patients in the same view, and modify queues as necessary. This way, professionals do not have to move back and forth between workspaces and reception to see who has arrived.
Thus, Vihta can bring significant benefits to the operations of well-being area units:
Continuous maintenance of data security and server durability increases reliability Integration allows simultaneous use of several systems With the help of pre-information, customers can be directed to the right service and location Self-registration clarifies customer service and professional work at receptions