Hildalgo County Utilizes Netsmart ScheduleConnect to Optimize COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - July 15, 2021 - PRLog -- OVERLAND PARK, Kan., — Netsmart announced the successful utilization of ScheduleConnect, a vaccination technology solution designed to efficiently assist healthcare agencies in the distribution, documentation, and reporting for the COVID-19 vaccination, at Hildalgo County Health & Human Services, located in Southeastern Texas.

Hidalgo County first announced the launch of their online registration to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at county-run clinics in late March. Through the county's partnership with Netsmart, Hidalgo County was able to launch the online portal to better facilitate coordination of vaccine distribution, control registration capacity and automate appointment openings for cancelations.

"After the first week of using our online COVID-19 registration portal, we were able to facilitate nearly 4,000 vaccines and have seen significant improvements to our community clinics' distribution workflows," said Eduardo Olivarez, Chief Administrative Officer, Hidalgo County Health & Human Services.

ScheduleConnect is a no-contact solution that allows for appointment scheduling to utilize data on location convenience, site capacity, phasing and prioritization following state and federal requirements. The web-based or mobile application portal is easily configurable, allowing staff to properly manage consumer registration, consent, insurance information, client confirmations, reminders, assessment screening, and more.

As an enhanced component of the Netsmart CareFabric® (https://www.ntst.com/lp/Carefabric)  platform, ScheduleConnect can run independently of a county or agency's electronic health record (EHR). The data collected on individuals can be exported and incorporated into an existing EHR.

"The Netsmart (https://www.ntst.com/) team assisted our clinic sites in a rapid implementation of ScheduleConnect, a solution that was a clear need in our community, and ensured the solution was up-to-speed," said Olivarez. "We have seen major benefits in our vaccination clinics, especially time efficiencies for clinic and site administration staff and patients. By utilizing ScheduleConnect our staff eliminated up to three hours of prep work from manual scheduling and appointment wait-time was cut down from one hour to as fast as 15 minutes, improving patient satisfaction."

The intuitive solution additionally helped Hidalgo County Health & Human Services make informed decisions regarding site staffing through real-time monitoring of patient capacity and is expected to help increase the number of vaccinations distributed at each site.

"As Hidalgo County's long-time healthcare IT partner, we were excited to support their staff and community in their large-scale vaccination efforts to protect the community," said Netsmart CEO Mike Valentine. "COVID-19 has shed a light on public health and the safety of our communities, we are thrilled with the success of ScheduleConnect and together we will keep the momentum going to bettering the health and wellness of these communities."