App allows deployment of orderlies a la Grab

MANILA, Philippines — A cutting edge web-based system that allows nurses in hospitals to efficiently deploy orderlies in carrying around patients, medicines, specimens and even food in hospitals is coming soon to the Philippines.

Anand Surana, CEO of US multinational tech firm ICEGEN Consulting, said that Philippine hospitals – already getting their share of the multibillion dollar global medical tourism industry – could greatly increase efficiency with their adoption of the PORTZO app and system.

“The same way that Uber and Grab have changed the rules of the game in transport, PORTZO is changing the rules of the game inside hospitals. Patients now receive prompt and better medical care and healthcare facilities see improved efficiency,” Surana said.

“This is the result of achieving the right balance of artificial intelligence and human intervention,” he added.

The PORTZO is mainly a porter management solution for nurses who deploy orderlies and porters to deliver patients on their wheelchairs or stretchers as well as pick up and deliver medicines, specimens, food, documents and other items that have to be carried around hospital.

The system has been adopted in more than 70 hospitals in nine countries where it has increased porter efficiency by more than 70 percent, cutting down the time taken by nurses to get patients or items delivered to destinations inside hospitals from more than 50 minutes to as quick as seven minutes.

Surana said that through their local distributor, information technology firm Radenta, ICEGEN Computing has signed a deal with one of the country’s top tertiary care hospitals, The Medical City Ortigas, making the Philippines the 10th country with a hospital benefitting from PORTZO technology.

Surana said a few others of the Philippines’ top tertiary hospitals have already expressed interest in the PORTZO system.

The unique and innovative PORTZO system works using the Icegen software. Each porter is issued a specially designed wi-fi badge that transmits a number correlated with his ID in the software. If a nurse requires a porter to transport a patient or deliver an item, she clicks on the PORTZO app installed on her desktop computer, mobile phone or smart watch, presses a prompt to make her request and selects the type of task that she requires, such as moving a patient or trolley, along with the destination.