Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) has successfully completed a pilot project with Irish SME Yellow Schedule, which it said demonstrated “significant improvements” in hospital referral management through its digital solution Triage Link.
The pilot took place at South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) and aimed to address long patient waiting lists and delays in accessing specialist care.
The Triage Link platform was designed to digitise and improve the referral pathway.
Developed in collaboration with clinical, administrative and management staff, the solution enables referrals to be received, reviewed, assigned and triaged electronically via web and mobile devices.
The system replaces manual, paper-based processes with a structured digital workflow, providing real-time visibility of referral status and enabling consultants to complete triage remotely.
It also captures valuable data to support operational oversight and service planning.
HIHI facilitated the co-design, implementation and evaluation of the solution – providing clinical liaison and project management support throughout the pilot.
The results from SIVUH showed a 99.6 per cent reduction in referral processing time (from 8.4 days to 0.03 days); 80 per cent reduction in consultant triage time (from 16.4 days to 3.2 days); and an 87 per cent reduction in total end-to-end triage time (from 24.8 days to 3.23 days)
To date, more than 8,000 referrals have been processed through the platform by 38 hospital staff, including consultants and central appointments teams.
Yellow Schedule CEO Martina Skelly said the pilot highlighted how digital innovation and AI-enabled solutions could significantly improve efficiency, reduce administrative burden and support faster clinical decision-making ultimately improving patient access to care.
“Working with HIHI and SIVUH enabled rapid co-design with clinical and administrative end users and generated quantifiable evidence of significantly reduced time-to-clinical-decision,” Ms Skelly said.
“This pilot strengthens our ability to scale and provides the evidence base required to support adoption within the HSE.”
HIHI director Tanya Mulcahy said the hub would continue to support the development and validation of innovative healthcare solutions that address real system challenges.
She said the pilot demonstrated the value of collaboration between healthcare providers and industry in delivering impactful, scalable improvements across the health service.
“This is an example of how when you bring the right elements together, Irish based companies can solve real healthcare problems,” Dr Mulcahy said.
“The South Infirmary team, through the vision of Helen Donovan CEO, have always supported Health Innovation Hub Ireland projects – in this case the collaboration between HIHI, Yellow Schedule and the SIVUH resulted in impactful outcomes and a problem solved.”
