An efficiency breakthrough in government-run healthcare
Thousands of employees from municipalities and healthcare institutions have to check Excel sheets daily to see if care contracts are being adhered to. Thomas Geelkerken, program manager digital transformation at Pluryn, thought otherwise. Last year the healthcare organization, together with Ledger Leopard, started developing their own app based on blockchain technology.
Thomas Geelkerken
Blockchain forces you to establish clear agreements, because vagueness cannot be programmed’
Care institution Pluryn provides care in more than 300 municipalities to youth and adults with complex problems such as autism, anxiety disorders and other behavioural disorders. “You can imagine that a large part of our work consists of communicating with municipalities about the correctness of agreements: Can we provide the requested care? How much will it cost? And does that care provided meet the agreements that have been made?” says Geelkerken.
End of confusion & frustration
Because municipalities and Pluryn keep their records completely separate, there is often confusion and frustration on both sides. Errors in an administration often only come to light at the end of a three-month care process. Inspired by the Ledger Leopard blockchain application Mijn Zorg Log – an initiative from VGZ and Zorginstituut Nederland – Pluryn started in 2017 with the development of an app which simplifies the administrative process between the healthcare organization and municipalities regarding the allocation of care or the payment of provided care.
“Our app, based on the Ledger Leopard blockchain, creates a much smaller chance for error and forces you to become very explicit with municipalities because vague agreements cannot be programmed,”
Thomas Geelkerken
Efficiency leads to a focus on quality
The app will be tested in the coming period in collaboration with the municipality of Renkum in the Netherlands. It is already clear that there will be a huge efficiency gain. “We will soon have real-time insight into the progress of our healthcare contracts. Efficiency is a dirty word in the healthcare sector. But we can spend all the hours we spend now putting our systems and administration in order to further improve the quality of our care.”
Geelkerken sees blockchain as a technology that is not yet commonplace. That is why Geelkerken is calling on other healthcare institutions and municipalities to join existing platforms such as Ledger Leopard. “We have deliberately chosen not to re-invent the wheel in the development of our app, and I would, therefore, like to call on other care institutions and municipalities to do the same: join and pull together, that’s how we achieve the most.”
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