From four to one hour

At the practitioner’s office where Esma works, a healthcare software without a chat function is used. Therefore, in the past the team were using WhatsApp for ad-hoc communication, of course without mentioning patient names to ensure privacy. This made it challenging to address care requests quickly and safely. ​“It mainly involved a lot of long phone calls,” says Esma.

To refer a patient to the right care institution, more information needed to be obtained, such as specific care needs or additional information about prescriptions. ​“Most of the time, you had to wait forever to reach the assistant on the phone and repeat the request multiple times to complete the referral,” explains Esma. Then she had to individually call each care institution to check availability for a new client. This process took up a tremendous amount of time, sometimes more than four hours, at the expense of the patient.

Fast, faster, fastest

Siilo is now being used as the preferred communication tool, which is not only faster in but also a lot more secure. ​“We have a safe platform for communicating about patients now. Previously, it could take up to four hours, but with Siilo, it has been reduced to a maximum of one hour. External communication is also much easier; everyone is able to get in contact with each other without the need for a phone call. With group conversations, you can quickly reach the right person,” says Esma.

The improvement in communication is mainly due to the use of group conversations and the ability to share documents and images with each other. ​“With one message, you can share all the necessary information with the institutions that need to handle the care request. Besides that, we can now determine what kind of care a specific patient needs without home visits, whereas previously, that could take more than a week in total. So, Siilo is smart, secure, and fast,” she states.

“It’s amazing that your personal and professional contacts stay separated, even if you only use one device.” says Esma enthusiastically. Within Esma’s practice, the secure camera and in-app storage are used a lot. ​“Sending media is safe and fast. Before Siilo, by the end of the week, my entire photo library would be filled with wound photos, which wasn’t really pleasant. I can’t imagine that happening anymore now. All information and media are stored within Siilo and automatically deleted after 30 days if you choose to do so. I no longer have the problem that my personal and work contacts mix, because everything stays in the Siilo app,” she adds.

The calling functionality is also a big favourite. Once the information about a patient is sent, they can directly call the doctor without involving or needing the assistant. ​“Because everything happens within the same app, the process is so much faster. The care request is addressed in no time, indirectly leaving more time for the patient,” concludes Esma.