The key to efficiency: the transformation of outage management at Grünstadt District Hospital with CrewLinQ

Digitalization is a key element everywhere in today's working world. It also influences the organizational structure in hospitals, care facilities and various other industries. However, many digitalization projects fail not because of the technology itself, but because the people in the organization do not go along with the change. Not so Martin Ulrich, Deputy Director of Nursing at the Grünstadt District Hospital (KKHGS).

In November 2023, he met Constanze Büchner, founder and Managing Director of CrewLinQ from Potsdam, at our WE CARE event. Her rousing pitch and clear vision immediately captivated him and convinced him of the innovative strength of her company. Because while the Grünstadt district hospital had already been implementing downtime management since July 2023, laboriously using Excel and telephone communication, the CrewLinQ app seemed to be the perfect solution. Thanks to CrewLinQ, disruptive calls during free time to fill shifts are now a thing of the past in Grünstadt.

The CrewLinQ 360 degree outage concept

CrewLinQ is an innovative tool for digital downtime management that sends service requests in real time directly to employees' smartphones. It offers one view for duty planners and one for your own employees. Both views are synchronized in real time, which leads to efficient and smooth communication and self-determined coverage. But even the supposedly simplest tool is not a matter of course for everyone. It requires close support and extensive onboarding.

"Our 360-degree outage concept consists of five consecutive steps that can be run through one after the other in the event of an outage in order to successfully and smoothly compensate for a service outage," says Constanze.

The absence concept is currently divided into five stages, one of which was also developed with input from KKHGS:

1. Jumper: request from the jumper pool to respond to absences at short notice and relieve the burden on permanent staff.

2. Joker: Employees can proactively offer their available working hours as joker services.

3. Internal: Internal downtime management, call-outs when there is no availability in the jumper pool to reduce leasing requirements.

4. Inter-company: Request from affiliated companies to expand the employee pool if there is no availability within the company.

5. External: Request for leasing staff to avoid bed closures and ensure patient care.

The solution can be customized as required. "There is a module or add-on for each step of our 360-degree outage concept that fulfills the respective function and interacts with the other applications," says Constanze, explaining the solution.

CrewLinq solution

Collaboration can only drive innovation - input from Grünstadt leads to new ADD-ON

The special dynamic of the cooperation between the Grünstadt district hospital and CrewLinQ lies in the mutual appreciation and cooperation on an equal footing. "The rapid implementation of questions and suggestions from CrewLinQ is incredibly valuable to us," says Martin Ulrich. This is also reflected in CrewLinQ's new add-on, the so-called Joker services. "We received input from the Grünstadt district hospital that employees who are not currently in the pool of stand-ins can volunteer as jokers and choose a shift in their free time," says Constanze, explaining the joker services.

Team members Grünstadt hospital and CrewLinq

Digital onboarding is a complete success

Before working with KKHGS, CrewLinQ always carried out onboarding on site at the hospitals or nursing homes. "For us, digital onboarding was an experiment," recalls Constanze. "It actually worked very, very well because we were able to pick up 100% of the employees in one go," Constanze continues. Martin Ulrich also has nothing but positive things to say about the onboarding: "We were delighted with the process and the implementation of the onboarding. It is very exciting for us to work with a start-up. CrewLinQ simply responds very quickly and efficiently to our requests and integrates our wishes almost in real time."

WE CARE brings care and startups together

On 21 November 2023, the WE CARE startup competition took place for the first time at CUBEX ONE in Mannheim, where young companies presented their ideas and solutions for digitalization in hospitals. The day was moderated by Katharina Klotzbach from CUBEX ONE and Amelie Nigbur from 5-HT. The event was organized by 5-HT, CUBEX ONE and the Medical Technology Cluster of the City of Mannheim.

The common goal of the organizers CUBEX ONE, the Medical Technology Cluster of the City of Mannheim and 5-HT Chemistry & Health was to ensure that nursing care in hospitals benefits from the solutions of innovative startups.

This is precisely what happened thanks to the collaboration between CrewLinQ and the Grünstadt district hospital. Ulrich raves about this successful and innovative collaboration: "I am delighted that we, as a small, modest hospital in Grünstadt, are now actually able to work with Potsdam (CrewLinQ) once across Germany, with the link in Mannheim/Ludwigshafen." Ulrich also has nothing but positive things to say about the WE CARE event: "I can only recommend anyone who has the opportunity to do so to take part in events like WE CARE. After all, start-ups, new ideas and young, creative minds are essential for advancing digitalization in the care sector."

5-HT Digital Innovation Ecosystem Manager Amelie Nigbur on WE CARE: "The event in November was already a great success! It was great to see so many inspiring stakeholders engaging in lively discussions to rethink the usual ways of delivering care. This shows once again how important it is to share ideas in order to bring innovative solutions to the healthcare system. Of course, I am even more pleased that CrewlinQ and the Grünstadt district hospital got to know each other there and are now working together successfully."

5-HT Digital Innovation Ecosystem Manager Amelie Nigbur moderating at WE CARE

The future of the healthcare industry in Germany

"Even if digitalization continues to advance, care must always remain human," emphasizes Constanze.

"I would like to see the technical possibilities that already exist implemented in a meaningful way to make work easier. At KKHGS, we will be focusing primarily on digitalization, innovation and automation of processes over the next few years," says Ulrich.

We at 5-HT Chemistry & Health are excited to see where the journey will take us and congratulate KKHGS and CrewLinQ on their successful collaboration.

Are you also looking for new impulses and digital innovations for your products? Then contact us at kontakt@5-ht.com and write your own success story together with us.