San Vicente Fundación Hospital: Digital Transformation Driven by Google Workspace Tools

About San Vicente Fundación Hospital

San Vicente Fundación is a non-profit organization founded a little over 100 years ago by a businessman from Antioquia, Colombia, called Alejandro Echavarría. To this date, the purpose of the organization is to provide health care to low-income people. The core of the organization is its hospital, called Hospital Universitario de San Vicente Fundación —established in 1913,— an open-door facility that has become a medical and academic icon in Colombia, as well as a beacon for the entire region.

Industries: Healthcare
Location: Colombia

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About Nuva

Nuva is a company that has been present in the market for eight years, devoted to helping companies carry out their digital transformation so they become more productive and competitive. As a partner of Google, Nuva specializes in change management for people that are alien to technology, which is why it became the perfect ally to help San Vicente Fundación take on Google Cloud Platform’s tools.

With Google's Google Workspace tools, San Vicente Fundación managed to streamline many processes and become a more modern medical institution in order to keep providing the best quality health care it has always delivered.

Google Cloud Results

  • Google Meet allowed the Hospital to create virtual seminars to which around 1,600 people register, a large difference from lectures held in an auditorium that can accommodate only 400 people.
  • The deployment of Google Workspace improved information security as a result of higher access control and shielded the company from constant attacks and spam.
  • Collaborative work improved by streamlining the communication channel using tools such as Google Meet and Gmail.

Before, the Hospital held conferences in an auditorium with capacity for 300 or 400 people. Now, through Google Meet, they can organize virtual seminars with 1,600 subscribers.

San Vicente Fundación is a non-profit organization founded a little over 100 years ago by a businessman to provide health care to low-income, vulnerable people. Its hospital, called Hospital Universitario de San Vicente Fundación —established in 1913,— is an open-door facility that has become a medical and academic icon in Colombia, as well as a beacon for the entire region.

This medical center has welcomed people coming from other countries, immigrants and children whose parents lack sufficient economic resources. In fact, 87% of its patients belong to the most vulnerable sectors of the population, highlights Julian Andres Meneses, Head of IT and Communication Support at San Vicente.

However, after having dealt with 365,000 emergencies, performed 16,000 surgeries, and held 208,000 appointments, San Vicente needed to modernize many of the processes involving patients, doctors and the administrative staff.

The challenge was to improve hospital operation using information technology to maintain quality and streamline resources.

In the particular case of San Vicente, it seemed that everything needed to go from little to big changes, that is, start with a change of mindset amongst the staff until effectively deploying the most sophisticated technology that would make the use of ORs more efficient.

IT and Communications and the Change of Mindset

In order to make transformation possible through different information technologies, San Vicente sought the help of Nuva, a Google partner specialized in digital transformation for businesses.

This partner pinpointed the foundation's needs and helped it adapt to the Google Workspace tools, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Meet. For Nuva, the biggest challenge when working with San Vicente was securing the necessary management to change the mindset of people who were alien to technology.

One of the first Google Workspace tools introduced was Gmail, a means that transformed communication across all areas of the hospital, becoming a streamlined channeled that put everyone on the same page.

"One time, a surgery was cancelled because the notification was sent to the surgeon to an email address he never checked. Now, however, if your email is set up in your phone, you receive the notice and this kind of misunderstanding can be avoided."

Julian Andres Meneses, Head of IT and Communication Support at San Vicente.

Other aspects that improved with the deployment of Gmail as the email provider of the foundation were information security and access control. "We also have greater security in our emails. We used to receive a lot of spam, viruses and our email was constantly under attack," adds Julian Andres Meneses, Head of IT and Communication Support.

Meanwhile, Google Calendar provided better control and visibility of the material available for surgeries, as well as any material that was missing. At the same time, document storage in the cloud through Google Drive helped reduce confusion as well as storage costs.

Julian Andres Meneses, Head of IT and Communication Support, explains that before implementation "terabytes and terabytes of repeated information" were flowing around, a problem that was solved since the deployment of Google Workspace.

Using these tools changed the staff's view of technology and its effects on more simple processes but it also had an impact on other people, beyond staff members.

Getting Through to More People with Google Meet

Google Meet, the Google Workspace video conference tool, also changed the way the hospital works, especially in terms of the academic dissemination work performed by the foundation.

When the hospital was created, it welcomed medical interns and students. Since then, the institution has stayed true to this purpose and developed health care services that embrace academic work.

Workshops and seminars are part of San Vicente Fundación and using Google Meet video conferences, the team realized that holding virtual workshops and seminars was more favorable.

"Before, we could only hold seminars in an auditorium, with capacity for 300 or 400 people. Now, we hold video conferences where up to 1,600 people can register and users can relive the video on YouTube later for academic purposes."

Julian Andres Meneses, Head of IT and Communication Support.

Looking Forward

After having modernized the institution with the deployment of Google Workspace tools at San Vicente, Julian Andres Meneses, Head of IT and Communication Support, states that they are already working on a pilot project that allows them to address lost time in ORs.

Mr. Meneses explains that the goal of the pilot project is to create a sort of brain capable of making decisions with complex surgery scheduling in an OR.

The hospital has six ORs available and each surgery is scheduled for a period of six hours. When an operation is cancelled, that time is lost and it is very complex to rearrange everything with all the staff required for a surgery.

"What we want to do next is automate processes and integrate these tools with others to move forward with many of the internal projects we run."

Julian Andres Meneses, Head of IT and Communication Support.

So, through machine learning, they seek to improve coordination and notify surgeons, nurses, specialists, anesthesiologists, and patients faster and thus avoid losing time.

By making communication more efficient and by better organizing the hospital's extensive amount of information, the staff at San Vicente can now focus on new projects, maybe the most ambitious ones, that help continue fulfilling the mission under which the hospital was created over 100 years ago.

Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.

Contact us

About San Vicente Fundación Hospital

San Vicente Fundación is a non-profit organization founded a little over 100 years ago by a businessman from Antioquia, Colombia, called Alejandro Echavarría. To this date, the purpose of the organization is to provide health care to low-income people. The core of the organization is its hospital, called Hospital Universitario de San Vicente Fundación —established in 1913,— an open-door facility that has become a medical and academic icon in Colombia, as well as a beacon for the entire region.

Industries: Healthcare
Location: Colombia

About Nuva

Nuva is a company that has been present in the market for eight years, devoted to helping companies carry out their digital transformation so they become more productive and competitive. As a partner of Google, Nuva specializes in change management for people that are alien to technology, which is why it became the perfect ally to help San Vicente Fundación take on Google Cloud Platform’s tools.