‘We are working together to give back time and financial space to healthcare’

Regional partner Sigra expands partnership with Enovation

Making the cooperation run smoothly is one of the most complex issues in healthcare and welfare. Complex, because there are many different interests to deal with. This is already quite a challenge within any individual organisation, let alone when it is combined with other healthcare and welfare organisations. ‘And that is precisely our expertise,’ says Joep van Gorp, manager of the IT services team at regional partnership organisation Sigra.

Joep van Gorp

‘We offer our members IT solutions to facilitate the cooperation,’ says Joep. ‘This is our main goal. We do this with the clear ambition to be able to give back time and financial space to healthcare and welfare.’

History

The collaboration between Sigra and Enovation was already ongoing when Enovation Mail was born. Nowadays, Sigra is the regional partner in the field of three Enovation products: Enovation Mail for Secure Email and EDI messaging. Enovation POINT for transfer, care coordination and capacity management. And, since 2024, Enovation Medimo for medication administration for nursing and care home organisations (VVT organisations) in the Amsterdam region.

Extensions of each other

So what makes the collaboration run so well? In fact, it’s because Enovation and Sigra function as extensions of each other. Sigra facilitates cooperation between many healthcare and welfare organisations within the region. It is one of the three Regional Cooperative Organisations (Regionale Samenwerkingsorganisaties, or RSOs) in the province of Noord-Holland. ‘The software we facilitate is used to support cross-domain collaborations,’ says Joep. Regional healthcare and welfare organisations spend a lot of their time working on transmural care processes. Sigra evaluates which applications are best used for this purpose, while streamlining that entire process. Joep adds: ‘Healthcare organisations are increasingly collaborating in cross-domain care processes, for which we provide the necessary information with custom-made digitisation.’

Reliable partner

Natasja van der Winden (Enovation POINT service manager at Sigra) is also seeing that the domain knowledge of the IT services team is of added value in helping the members select the right software for transmural collaborations. ‘The process starts with a request to improve care, and its implications for the transmural work process, followed by the request for a matching application, additional efficiency improvements and financial conditions. We really aim to be a reliable partner for our members in that process. Healthcare providers already have their hands full providing care. They have little time to delve into systems for transmural cooperation. So that’s where we offer them help. Together, we make good choices. In this way, we contribute to ensuring that healthcare providers make optimal use of the applications and have access to the right information at the right time.’

Advocacy

Sigra’s role is to represent the interests of the individual members, in order to facilitate the best possible software at attractive financial terms. Sigra’s members include hospitals, nursing homes and home care, mental health organisations, youth healthcare organisations, general practitioners and out-of-hours GP services, pharmacies, and other healthcare and welfare organisations. ‘Our members require us to facilitate the digitisation of cross-domain processes properly,’ says Joep. ‘Together, we have a lot of purchasing power, which enables us to not only serve our large members, but also to benefit our smaller members.’

Secure communication

Linda Dekker

Enovation Mail is the solution that Sigra has been offering its members the longest now. As an Enovation Mail service manager at Sigra, Linda Dekker is at the core of things when it comes to everything that members encounter. ‘If Sigra members have a question about Enovation Mail, I can help. From GPs who need a new mailbox, to a hospital that encounters a problem with secure email. In such cases, we are the link between our members and Enovation. In a nutshell: we look after the organisational part, while Enovation does the technical part. But it’s more than that: we really work as extensions of each other. While drafting the new distribution agreement, I noticed that we had developed a good relationship with each other.’

Sigra’s facilitating role is also reflected by the fact that Sigra organises administrator meetings for its members. At the same time, this also encourages collaboration. ‘Our role is to ensure that the system is implemented consistently throughout the region.’

Independent

‘Enovation Mail is really a basic service. It does what it needs to do’, says Joep.

‘We certainly do not let it run through every new contract period automatically and it’s not a matter of simply signing on the dotted line,’ says Linda. ‘We consistently take an independent and open approach in exploring solutions that best support our members’ processes. In doing so, Enovation Mail is a stable and reliable factor.’

Enovation Mail is really a basic service.

Thorough and solid research

Sigra is not dependent on any individual supplier. ‘When a healthcare provider goes to a conference, they are bound to be approached by all kinds of suppliers with various solutions,’ says Linda. ‘At Sigra, we look at whether such an app is indeed suitable for the issue at hand. Sometimes websites are developed without considering whether they offer the proper solution or whether they are secure. Do they in fact comply with safety and privacy standards and such? That’s why the first things we look at are: what do you really need and which application meets this requirement? We bring peace of mind to the process. Thorough and solid research. Only then can you make the right choice.’

Regional healthcare coordination

Natasja van der Winden

An important solution in the coordination of regional healthcare in Amsterdam (in the Dutch province of Noord-Holland) is the Enovation POINT application (Capacity tracker and Transfer). At Sigra, Natasja van der Winden is the dedicated service manager for this solution. She is also known as a the ‘POINT Guru’, because she knows the programme and its benefits so well. ‘Enovation POINT is really an integrated healthcare programme. It generates integrated records for follow-up care by a GP or hospital, to a nursing home, rehabilitation care, and home care. Using the programme really made me become enthusiastic about it. What I think is important is that the Sigra members get the most out of the programme. That’s why we organise meetings, where we discuss the different options. For example, sharing files with others to discuss them jointly. Some people save them as a PDF and email them (securely). Yet the programme also offers different ways to go about this. Sigra facilitates optimal use of the application so that the application can better support the process.’

Healthcare requests in Enovation POINT via 3 routes

Natasja: ‘It is nice to see that, via a link between applications, a Regional Coordination Point can receive requests in Enovation POINT in three ways: hospitals can do this directly in Enovation POINT, GPs via their own information system, and family members or caregivers can do it via a registration website. This reduces the administrative burden, so that more time is left for actual healthcare.’

This reduces the administrative burden, so that more time is left for actual healthcare.

Electronic medication administration registration

Etiënne van Winkel

Apart from this, Sigra also went out to look for an application that supports electronic medication administration registration for its members. As mentioned, Sigra maintains a good and thorough approach to research into software solutions for and with its members. Of course, it also did so in its search for an application for electronic medication administration registration. That’s where Enovation Medimo ultimately came out on top in home care.

More than 175 pharmacies and around 30 nursing and care home organisations (VVT organisations) in the region are involved in this process. ‘Sigra has created and is coordinating a regional deployment plan,’ explains Enovation Medimo service manager Etiënne van Winkel. ‘Almost all VVT organisations are now “live” in Enovation Medimo, including their connection with the pharmacies. We achieved this in just over six months, thanks to the good cooperation with the project leaders of the organisations, the regional representation of pharmacists and our supplier.’

Software matters, but regional agreements matter more

‘At Sigra, our credo is: good applications account for twenty percent of the proper functioning of information provision in healthcare,’ says Natasja, ‘yet the remaining eighty percent depends on solid agreements. An application is not the Holy Grail – you have to set your own rules of how you use it.’

‘Exactly, and that’s what we then do with the cooperation agreements we make. After all, the application must be built to support the collaborative process,’ adds Joep.

Data-driven choices are becoming increasingly important

In Dutch healthcare, working in a data-driven way is becoming increasingly important. The members of Sigra are also coming to that realisation. In fact, a dashboard was created based on data from the Enovation POINT application that shows how a referral and transmural transfer takes place, how long it takes and where it may encounter delays. Or what type of care causes a delay in the flow at which point in time. All participating VVT organisations and hospitals that are members of Sigra are able to view that information.

Data, data, data

‘In the Amsterdam region, healthcare organisations are really looking for data,’ says Natasja. ‘Since so much valuable data is logged in Enovation POINT, ninety percent of the data for access to the chain is currently obtained there. That is the part of Enovation POINT that Enovation really should celebrate and display to the outside world. More and more data-driven work is being done. It supports the management and administration of healthcare organisations in making policy-related choices.’

‘That dashboard is currently powered from a regional data platform,’ says Linda. ‘Ultimately, the ambition is to map out healthcare in the Amsterdam region. That is why we want data from other applications to also be processed. Connecting other applications is currently an important development. We do this, among other things, in cooperation with Enovation.’

Since so much valuable data is logged in Enovation POINT, ninety percent of the data for access to the chain is currently obtained there.

Sigra – more than just an ICT broker

This article is about the role that Sigra plays in choosing and using healthcare ICT for its members. But of course, Sigra does much more. The organisation has more than 150 members, employing more than two hundred thousand professionals. The Sigra team is made up of 70 employees, who work day in and day out to achieve the organisation’s ultimate goal: connecting, strengthening and renewing cooperation in healthcare and welfare in the province of North Holland. Sigra does this through the following programmes:

1. Welzijn en Zorg (Welfare and Healthcare).
2. Arbeidsmarkt en Onderwijs (Labour market and Education).
3. Digitale Zorg (Digital Care).
4. Innovatielab (Innovation lab).

More about Sigra’s work and role can be found on the organisation’s website.