Spanish Point Technologies

Customer Stories /

NTPF

Sector:
Healthcare

Size:
50-100

Client Since:
2016

Main Services:
Azure and Power Platform solution for real-time patient data management

Technologies Used:
Azure, PowerApps, Power Pages, Power BI, Microsoft Entra ID

Patient Access Management System (PAMS)

The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) works to provide timely access to care for patients on waiting lists in Ireland. As part of innovation-driven efforts to optimise efficiencies and ensure more patients receive the care they need faster, the government healthcare body appointed Dublin-based Spanish Point Technologies to develop a bespoke technology-based solution.

The result was the Patient Access Management System (PAMS), a comprehensive, cloud-based IT solution built using Power Platform to identify, track, and manage patient care information across public and private hospitals in Ireland. Since its initial launch in 2019, PAMS has continued to exceed expectations, supporting NTPF in managing over 160,000 patients today with further improvements in efficiency and waiting time reductions.

The Challenge

Public healthcare is widely available in the Republic of Ireland. Thanks to the NTPF – whose mission is to provide timely access to appropriate care – many patients can receive care in a public or private hospital in Ireland.

However, there’s a vast amount of waiting list data which must be constantly organised and updated to ensure that the right patient is assigned to the right hospital and receives the right specialist care. The back-end process of recording each patient’s individual status is equally important, and prior to the new solution, information management and reporting was extremely time-consuming.

“Spanish Point is a great company to partner with. Their use of Agile project management ensured that the project moved very quickly, from development to ‘go live’. We are looking forward to continuing to work with them.”

Alison Green

Director of Process Innovation, NTPF

In January 2018, the NTPF held an Innovation Event with key stakeholders to explore how technology could optimise day-to-day activities and ultimately ensure that patients on waiting lists could be seen as quickly as possible.

The conclusion was that a new IT system was needed to streamline data for a wide network of users, allowing access to real-time patient information from both private and public hospitals, as well as the ability to create custom reports. The system also had to be watertight from a security perspective to ensure every piece of personal data stored was protected in line with GDPR legislation.

“An off-the-shelf solution would have required costly customisation, and building from scratch would have taken months. With Power Platform, Spanish Point was able to deliver a customised case management solution much faster and at a lower cost. The use of model-driven apps enabled us to design the interface at one-tenth the cost of a UX designer.”

Mark Gullick

Dynamics Lead, Spanish Point Technologies

The Solution

Deciding to put out its IT contract to tender, the NTPF team conducted a thorough overview of the current situation, in order to identify the key requirements for the new system and to gauge the exact state of readiness.

They conducted onsite ‘Gemba’ walks (walking the workplace floor to better understand problems and identify where improvements could be made) in both public and private hospitals and held face-to-face meetings and information sessions with various stakeholders – such as the Department of Health, HSE, and Hospital Groups.

After a competitive procurement process, the NTPF appointed us, Spanish Point Technologies, as its official IT partner. Following an in-depth discovery phase, Spanish Point proposed PAMS – the Patient Access Management System – as a complete data access and case management solution, offering the scalability, security, and efficiency functionality NTPF required.

A minimum viable product was quickly created, including Power Apps applications for NTPF employees and hospital staff. Patient data is securely pulled from a SQL database into Dataverse, allowing NTPF staff to search and update patient lists as patients progress through treatment. Hospitals also use Power Apps to manage patients assigned by NTPF. Here, they can also update records as patients move through the treatment process. Hospitals, too, can manage patients assigned by NTPF through Power Apps, making updates in real-time.

The use of Azure DevOps provided visibility into the development process for both Spanish Point and NTPF, helping build confidence in Power Platform’s ability to deliver at an enterprise scale.

“The low-code efficiency of Power Platform was a key driver of that speed. We are really impressed with how quickly PAMS went from design and brainstorming to production. As a developer, I have always been somewhat sceptical of low code. But seeing our Power Platform applications move through development, test, and production in Azure DevOps gave me confidence that Power Platform can deliver at an enterprise scale.”

Eoin Darcy

Director of Information and Communications Technology, NTPF

High Marks for Performance and Security

PAMS quickly delivered beyond expectations. Just five months after its launch, over 30,000 ‘Offers of Care’ had been issued to 41 public hospitals in Ireland via PAMS, with 45% of these offers accepted. The system has led to significant reductions in waiting times.

The feedback from users both within the NTPF and in the external hospitals has been extremely positive. Patient information is now accessible more quickly and efficiently, the status of patients on their journey to care is visible at each stage, and PAMS reports are being used to drive performance improvements.

Data security was a priority, involving the organisation’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Data Protection Officer throughout the tendering process. The entire system was developed to NIST security standards, supporting NTPF’s GDPR obligations. Key security features include single sign-on through Azure Entra ID and conditional access, which limits data visibility to relevant patient information per hospital. Multi-factor authentication is also enabled, ensuring secure access for users.

“Working with Azure and Power Platform, we didn’t need to build security. We just needed to configure it. That drove significant time and cost savings, particularly for the security requirements of this project.”

Mark Gullick

Dynamics Lead, Spanish Point Technologies

Ntpf System

Key Benefits

Users did not require training

Significant patient-level information about those accessing care

Increased data security

Reduction in wait times

Improved efficiencies for users

30,000 ‘Offers of Care’ in 5 months

“We are really impressed with how quickly PAMS went from design and brainstorming to ‘go live’. The feedback from users both within the NTPF and in the external hospitals has been extremely positive. Patient information can be accessed more quickly and efficiently, the status of patients on their journey to care is visible at each stage, and PAMS reports are being used to drive improved performance.”

Alison Green

Director of Process Innovation, NTPF

The Result

PAMS went live on in May 2019. Due to the intuitive nature of PAMS users did not require training. However system support and user guides were made available to assist those using the system. By June, 40 public and 18 private hospitals participating in NTPF care initiatives were actively using the system.

The system continues to have a positive impact on patient care, data security, and improved efficiencies for users. To date, it has captured and provided significant patient-level information about those accessing care.

In addition, the NTPF has been able to make massive reductions in waiting times. As of October 2019, just 5 months after its launch, over 30,000 ‘Offers of Care’ had been issued to 41 public hospitals in Ireland via PAMS, 45% of which, have since been accepted.

Next Wave

Since its initial launch in 2019, the number of patients managed through PAMS has grown from 30,000 to over 160,000. As funding to NTPF continues to grow, more patients are being managed through the system. Spanish Point and NTPF have leveraged the low-code flexibility of Power Platform to expand the system rapidly and meet increasing needs.

This includes a new model-driven app that now supports outpatient requests in addition to inpatient requests. Employees from both NTPF and referring hospitals access the app, with secure role-based access. The system now integrates with external systems, tracking patient-selected treatment options, including communications sent through the postal system, which are scanned and saved back to Dataverse.

Most recently, an additional app was added for call centre agents who work with patients declining treatment. This app allows for notes and updates to be entered seamlessly into the central Dataverse store. Spanish Point also collaborated with NTPF developers to help them create in-house Power Platform solutions, all integrated with PAMS. One such solution tracks negotiated prices on behalf of patients in private nursing homes.

Additionally, Power BI dashboards have been created for reporting patient metrics, including public-facing reports on the NTPF website.

“PAMS is fundamental to everything we do at NTPF – and Power Platform is a key part of our system’s success.”

Eoin Darcy

Director of Information and Communications Technology, NTPF