More time for care with Omnia

In implementing a new Omnia-based intranet and document management system, Åland’s public health and medical care authority have significantly improved their internal communications. The new solution has made it a lot easier to find relevant information and documents, thereby freeing up time for staff throughout the whole organization.

– Internal communications have improved and our processes are more efficient with the new solution. Furthermore, our documents are now much better organized, with a very lean and optimized structure. But we still have more work to do before the new solution is fully implemented. In the near future, when everything is in place and our training completed, our employees will find relevant information, tools, and other resources more quickly. Which will give them more time to attend to our patients, says Ann Riis, Communication Coordinator at Åland Health and Medical Care.

Unified digital workplace for Åland’s health care

Åland Health and Medical Care (ÅHS) is responsible for public health and medical care all over the island of Åland. Offering its services to the citizens of Åland, as well as visitors to the island, the authority provides a very comprehensive program from preventive health care to specialized medical services. In addition to running health clinics, medical units and home care services on the island, they also operate specialist and dental clinics together with rehab, geriatric, diabetes, and lifestyle clinics.

Previously, ÅHS had an autonomously developed intranet that had grown into a tangled web, difficult to navigate, support and keep in sync with user demands and new technologies. The organization was in dire need of improved internal communications and information accessibility as well as more secure and efficient document management. Accordingly, they decided to implement a new standardized and cloud-based intranet platform and document management system. They chose Omnia. Ann Riis explains why:

– We wanted to create a modern digital workplace with all information, resources and office productivity, and collaboration tools accessible via a single interface. That’s why we also decided to migrate to Office 365 at the same time as we implemented the new intranet platform. Since Omnia offers document support and smooth and seamless integration with Office 365, it was the solution that best met our needs.

ÅHS chose Precio Fishbone as its implementation partner. The project started in the fall of 2017 with the new intranet and Office 365 being installed and introduced to the whole organization in the following year. Ann sums up:

– Our new digital workplace embraces the entire organization, with its approximately one thousand users. Among them are all kinds of professionals from nurses and doctors to administrative personnel and cleaners.

Clinically clean with Omnia

Without a proper document management system, it was difficult for ÅHS to keep track of different document versions and to manage and control the usage of the vast array of document templates and types. The volume of documents was simply overwhelming and there were duplicates in abundance as well as outdated and defective documents. Ann and her team had to start with a thorough clean-up of the document folders and structure.

– We categorized all documents by their contents and authors. Then we asked the authors to go through all their documents and let us know which ones to keep. They had to respond before a certain date and documents older than 2013, that no author wanted to save, were just not transferred into the new system. It was a very efficient method of weeding out unnecessary documents and simultaneously reducing the overall volume of documents, Ann explains.

The remaining documents were republished in Omnia with a clearly organized structure and document control functions ensuring that authors use the correct templates, document types, and naming practices. The new document management system is used for health and medical care processes, treatment instructions, medical dosages, legal obligations, rules to be observed, and so. The next step is to migrate other types of documents into the system.

– The new document management system has made our processes much more efficient. Our staff can now find critical information when treating a patient, for instance, so much faster than before. With the system’s built-in version management together with approval, follow-up and reminder functions, we can now be confident that the information is reliable and updated in accordance with the latest legal requirements. Document owners are regularly and automatically reminded to review their documents, Ann underlines.

Digital workplace now open for everyone

Roughly half the workforce at ÅHS are constantly on their feet and do not have access to a computer at work. So their access to internal information and communications channels has previously been limited to e-mail, meetings and bulletin boards. The introduction of Omnia has broken their digital alienation.

– Due to Omnia and its mobile app, in particular, all employees can now access news feeds, discussions, documents, and productivity and collaboration tools via our digital workplace. It means a lot for the efficiency and transparency of our internal collaboration and communication, Ann concludes and adds:

– The other day a colleague told me that the digital workplace is, in fact, one of the most important tools we have.