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“Self-measurement fits well within our vision,” says Irene Wischhoff. She was initially involved in the innovation project as an information advisor and later became project leader, supervising the project together with IT architect Remco van Wijhe. “We want to give patients more control, while also easing the workload on our staff. When patients measure their own vital signs, it saves a lot of time for healthcare professionals in the outpatient clinics.”

Alviscan is fully preconfigured to meet the requirements of the project group. A connection with the Electronic Health Record (EHR) HiX has been implemented, allowing measurement data to be stored directly in the patient record. In addition, Alviscan automatically selects the correct measurement per patient based on the type of outpatient appointment.

The project group closely monitors the introduction of Alviscan during the initial phase across all areas, including reviewing system data. Wischhoff explains: “For example, we want insight into how often a doctor repeats a measurement, or how many patients skip the self-measurement point. There can be various reasons for this. By understanding them, we can respond appropriately and help reduce any feelings of anxiety or hesitation. Our goal is to encourage both patients and healthcare professionals to make full use of this innovation.”

Looking back, Wischhoff and Van Wijhe are very satisfied. “I think we approached it well,” says Wischhoff. “Internally, we involved as many stakeholders as possible in the process, not only healthcare providers, but also the Patient Council, facility services, the infection prevention team, the marketing and communications department, and volunteers. We wanted to be very careful in that regard.”

The collaboration with Alphatron was also very positive, Van Wijhe explains. “Compliments to Alphatron; you can tell they really built on their experience from the first hospitals. There was a tight project schedule, regular meetings, excellent documentation, and short communication lines. They also actively thought along with us when we ran into problems. Communication was very smooth, which really helped build trust.”

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“The self-measurement kiosk is one of the solutions we began exploring,” says Marjolein Blaauw, Project Manager for Data & Digitalization. “We contacted several suppliers and visited other hospitals that already had a self-measurement kiosk in place. Following this, we tested two kiosks from different suppliers at our own site.

Elmar Boelkens, staff advisor for Innovation, was involved during the pilot fase. For a month, the self-measurement kiosks were tested alternately at the preoperative screening outpatient clinic and in the surgery department for same-day admission patients. After a thorough evaluation, UMCG ultimately chose Alviscan. “The service level provided by Alphatron was what really made the difference for us,” says Boelkens. “The communication, their willingness to think along with us, the support, and their ‘just get it done’ mentality, made the collaboration very pleasant.

There are now three Alviscan units in the hospital; the internal medicine department also has its own self-measurement kiosk. Blaauw explains: “That department wasn’t part of the pilot project, but they quickly saw the benefits. The device takes over tasks that were mainly performed by physicians, so they were very interested.”

With Alviscan, patients measure their own vital signs, and all data is automatically recorded in EPIC, the electronic patient record system. This saves healthcare staff approximately 3 to 5 minutes per patient. In the preoperative screening department, this could translate into a reduction of up to 1.5 FTE. However, this time saving is not a goal by itself. Boelkens explains: “By allowing Alviscan to take over routine measurements, medical assistants have more time to truly focus on the patient. That personal attention remains extremely important to us. We are therefore exploring how Alviscan can be implemented across more departments, enabling both healthcare professionals and patients to benefit as much as possible.”

“The benefits of Alviscan are hard to express in exact monetary terms,” Boelkens adds. “It’s more about softer gains, such as increased efficiency, more time for patients, greater job satisfaction for staff, and consequently reduced absenteeism.”

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At Jeroen Bosch Hospital, Alviscan is used in the gynecology department. Patients measure their own heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and weight. The data is automatically saved in HiX, and patients get a printout of their results.

By measuring their own vital signs in the waiting room, patients experience less stress, which keeps blood pressure more stable and provides more accurate readings. This also reduces the time nurses spend on measurements, allowing doctors to focus more on the patient during consultations. Automatic data entry further minimizes errors, eliminating manual data entry mistakes.

In 2022, Erasmus MC became the first hospital in the Netherlands to introduce the Alviscan selfmeasurement kiosk. In late 2023, they took it a step further by connecting it with HiX, their EHR.

The Alviscan is located in the anesthesiology department and is used by 80% of the patients. Most of them are delighted to be able to measure their own saturation, heart rate, blood pressure, height and weight. Inge de Leeuw, the department manager, understands why: “Some patients start with the surgeon and end up in anesthesiology two or three hours later. Being able to do something independently is perceived as highly positive.”

Inge adds, “This leads to a reduction in workload for the staff at the outpatient clinic. Additionally, it prevents input errors. That is undoubtedly a significant added value. It truly enhances the quality.”

The outpatient clinic staff is also enthusiastic about the self-measurement feature. It saves about 5 minutes of work per patient, which adds up to over 1100 hours of time saved per year. Inge explains, “Considering the increasing demand for healthcare, we might have needed more staff. However, thanks to the Alviscan, that is not currently the case. Our colleagues can now take on other tasks thanks to the Alviscan.”

In the long run, there could be more benefits. Niels Hulshoff, Functional Management Advisor, suggests, “In the waiting area, patients often have to wait for blood collection or to pick up medication. Imagine if we also had an Alviscan there. We could use these patients’ time more efficiently. On an organizational level, this would result in significant time savings. It would further reduce potential errors. I consider that a great next step!”

“One of the best reactions? A patient said, ‘This is such a much more modern hospital!’ That’s exactly what we stand for, innovation, which we really value. We estimate that using Alviscan has freed up about half an FTE. That time is now being used for other tasks.” Leendert-Jan Doornbos, innovation coach at Haga Hospital, says this. Leendert-Jan was the driving force behind the project. He explains how Alviscan is performing and how it has improved the workflow.

“Haga Hospital is one of the 27 STZ hospitals in the Netherlands. That means medical and organizational innovation is a core value for us,” says Leendert-Jan. “As an innovation coach, I support colleagues who are working on innovation. Haga Hospital had been interested in a self-measurement kiosk for some time. That coincided with a request from the work floor: could certain tasks, such as measuring vital signs, be done automatically? We took that call for labor-saving innovation very seriously.”

Haga Hospital chose Alviscan from Alphatron Medical, an innovative solution that allows patients to measure their own vital signs independently before the consultation. The self-measurement kiosk was installed in the hospital’s innovation lab as part of the National Smart Healthcare Relay, and it has essentially never left.

The self-measurement kiosk is located in the gynecology outpatient clinic. This department had an urgent need for an automated blood pressure check. “The advantage in this situation is that patients in this clinic generally don’t have any conditions that interfere with blood pressure measurements,” explains the innovation coach. “That gave us the opportunity to see how the kiosk performed and to assess which other parameters we considered important.”

Blood pressure measurement is the most important in this clinic, but weight is also relevant, especially for pregnant women, as it plays a key role in screening. That’s why Alviscan was configured as a self-measurement kiosk for automatic blood pressure and weight checks, although Leendert-Jan does not rule out the possibility of adding more functions in the future. “For now, it’s a perfect use case.”

The innovation coach is very satisfied with how everything went. “When you look at successful innovations in Dutch hospitals, it almost always comes down to projects where you work together with a partner to further develop the product at an early stage. That was the case for us as well. Alphatron optimized Alviscan during the pilot phase. Meanwhile, as a hospital, we looked at where and how we could best deploy the kiosk. A great collaboration.”