Simple IT solution underpins execution of Danish corona test strategy

It took Systematic three weeks to adapt the IT system which today provides the health authorities with an overview of test centre capacity in Denmark. The solution has been made available to the Danish health authorities free of charge.

Keeping track of the rate of infection has been and remains an important element in the strategy to control the spread of the coronavirus in Denmark.

When the Danish authorities desperately needed to increase their test capacity, the software company Systematic offered to tailor an IT solution which would keep track of the number of tests conducted as well as bookings in the newly erected white tents belonging to Testcenter Danmark – an offer which the authorities accepted with open arms.

“The Government’s strategy is to test far more Danes in order to break the infection chains, and so we have to be able to manage our test capacity to ensure that particularly important groups such as close contacts of infected people can always be tested immediately. At the same time, we must avoid heavy, bureaucratic reporting regimes, so that the healthcare staff can spend their time testing citizens. When Systematic offered to develop a simple and flexible solution free of charge which could automatically monitor available capacity at the test centres based on existing data, we welcomed it with open arms,” says Nanna Skovgaard, head of digitisation at the Danish Ministry of Health.

Flexible solution for changeable situation

The solution is called Columna Flow Capacity Management, and is a flexible and user-friendly IT system which is already being used at many Danish hospitals in a slightly more advanced version. Systematic adapted the solution, which was configured to receive data from the test centres’ booking system to give the health authorities an overview of capacity at the 20 test centres operated by Testcenter Danmark. The system makes it possible for both employees in the tents and the authorities to monitor the number of bookings, the number of appointments made available and the number of completed tests, and thus get an idea of available capacity.

“It gives us a very good overview of the situation in Denmark, and in collaboration with the regional authorities we can quickly adjust capacity depending on how the situation develops. For example, in connection with the COVID-19 outbreak at a care home in Hjørring in northern Jutland, we saw a rapid increase in the need to test both care home staff and residents, and in collaboration with the health authorities in North Jutland Region, Statens Serum Institut (SSI) and the national operative staff, we were quickly able to increase capacity,” says Nanna Skovgaard.

Lightning-fast development and implementation

Systematic is already a provider of logistics, care and electronic health record systems for the healthcare system in both Denmark and abroad, and Columna Flow solutions are in use at several hospitals worldwide.

“Columna Flow Capacity Management is an advanced solution for capacity management, and for providing an overview of bed spaces and the expected number of patient admissions and discharges. The model being used in the test centres is a simpler configuration, but the solution can be extended to also show the number of patients admitted to the special COVID-19 wards, the number of available ventilators and the stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) available at all the hospitals in Denmark,” says Henrik Jespersen, Group Senior Vice President at Systematic.

At the Danish Ministry of Health, specialist consultant Rune Møller Thomsen, who worked with Systematic on the development of the solution, is impressed by the effective cooperation, which meant that it was quickly up and running.

“It was only three weeks from when we decided what the solution should contain to when it was rolled out. That’s impressive, when you think that such a process usually involves numerous workshops and training sessions. This was indeed an agile process, which had us discussing at all times of the day and night our particular needs, addressing any problems and quickly arriving at the right solution. Systematic was extremely flexible in their approach to the task, and we have – in record time – created something good and useful through an intense, online dialogue,” says Rune Møller Thomsen from the Ministry of Health.

Systematic has developed and implemented the solution free of charge, although the Ministry of Health is covering the company’s own operating costs, which total DKK 7,500 a month.

Further information:

Ministry of Health: Rune Møller Thomsen, specialist consultant, tel. +45 7226 9000 / rmt@sum.dk