Nurse and citizen look at citizens journal

    Herning Municipality: “Columna Axon is the best digital aid we have had for nursing for a long time.”

    Herning Municipality and the Central Denmark Region have been trialling Columna Axon, with great success. The solution provides a new digital means of improving collaboration and communication between sectors, enabling them to share real-time patient data for the same citizen with one another. Phone calls from the municipality to the hospital were cut by up to 50% during the trial period, freeing up time for improved care and treatment.


    Columna Axon builds bridges within the healthcare system by making it possible for healthcare staff across sectors to share up-to-date and relevant data with one another – in a simple and effective way.


    This gives all healthcare employees dealing with the same citizen access to the latest information about their treatment and care. Columna Axon serves as a supplement to MedCom’s admission and discharge messages when a citizen transfers between sectors and is treated, for example, under community care services and at a hospital.

     

    Challenge

    • Lack of insight into citizens’ patient data from the hospital
    • Numerous phone calls between municipality and hospital to clarify queries about a citizen
    • Citizens have had responsibility for passing on information about their state of health to various healthcare staff
    • Uncertainty for citizens as to whether they have remembered their history correctly
     

    Solution

    • Introduction of Columna Axon for a trial period of just under 10 months
    • Sharing of patient data for the same citizen between nursing team and hospital in real time
    • Initially, current data going back three days could be viewed, and this was subsequently changed to five days
    • Data is secured and encrypted
     

    Benefits

    • 26%* of phone calls from the nursing team to the hospital eliminated
    • 67%* of phone calls were more focused on the patient
    • 36%* of all phone calls took less time than expected
    • According to employees, the solution is user-friendly, intuitive and easy to implement
    • Columna Axon works together with existing IT solutions
    • The solution optimises treatment quality and the work of healthcare professionals
    • Healthcare professionals feel more confident and capable, which contributes to increased job satisfaction

    * Impact assessment for Columna Axon, pilot test in the Central Denmark Region and Herning Municipality, August 2024, measured over almost 10 months.

    Employees keen to keep Columna Axon after trial period

    Herning Municipality trialled Columna Axon in collaboration with Gødstrup Hospital for just under 10 months in 2023, and they were delighted with it. So delighted in fact that at the end of the trial period a number of nurses said that they did not want to lose the solution.


    According to Gitte Nørgaard, Head of Nursing and Home Care for the municipality, the success is down to the solution both saving a great deal of time for employees and being easy to implement.


    “It gives citizens great peace of mind to feel that we have a coherent healthcare system, and it is a source of professional pride for employees, who feel that they can do a better job for their patients. It’s a win-win. Columna Axon is the best digital aid we have had for nursing for a long time,” she says.


    She goes on to explain that the solution has helped to streamline workflows and improve patient safety and the quality of both treatment and care for citizens.


    For one thing, the number of phone calls between municipality and hospital has been substantially reduced, and employees now find that conversations about any citizen are more specific and take less time.

    Successful pilot project between region and municipality

    The Central Denmark Region and Herning Municipality have trialled Columna Axon, with highly satisfactory results. The solution has saved employees a great deal of time. Time that can now be devoted to care and treatment instead.

    About Columna Axon

    Columna Axon brings coherence to the Danish healthcare system by ensuring sectors are digitally connected. The system makes sharing current and relevant patient data easy and efficient for healthcare staff in municipalities, regions and general practitioners. 

    Find out how Columna Axon is digitally connecting sectors here.

     

    Herning Municipality

    • Herning Municipality is in the Central Denmark Region and has almost 90,000 inhabitants and approximately 8,000 employees
    • The municipality focuses on preventing hospital admissions among elderly citizens by means of early detection of health problems and taking appropriate action
    • The pilot test of Columna Axon has specifically involved community care nurses and therapists
     

    Gødstrup Hospital

    • Construction of this new hospital began in 2007, with medical teams moving in in 2022

    • The pilot test of Columna Axon covered patients who were in the Emergency Department or admitted to a ward during the period, and who after discharge received municipal assistance, e.g. municipal nursing services, assistive devices or rehabilitation