Three quarters patient bookings made online at Southern Cross Healthcare

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Three quarters of bookings at Southern Cross Healthcare are being made electronically across 11 hospitals through its eAdmissions platform, with 70 percent of surgeons now using the digital system.

Wendy Matthews and Ginna Bradbury from Southern Cross presented on the eAdmissions project at Digital Health Week NZ in November 2025

They told attendees the platform creates a connected digital journey that starts at specialist rooms where booking requests are created within Clinical Workstation, the organisation's electronic health record.

Patients then get email and text alerts inviting them to register for MyHealthcare , the patient portal, where they complete admission forms, health questionnaires and treatment agreements electronically.

"We have 70 percent of our surgeons now using eAdmissions which has resulted in 74 percent of our bookings received electronically by our hospitals," said Matthews.

Over the last six months, the digital transformation has eliminated around 115,000 pieces of paper that would have been used for traditional booking paper packs and comes with associated cost savings.

The system allows hospital bookings teams to track form completion in real time through Clinical Workstation, with completed forms immediately available to hospital staff, clinical teams and medical specialists.

She said the project has also challenged assumptions about digital adoption.

"Data analysis comparing form completions with patient demographic information has dispelled the myth that the ageing population will not engage in digital forms. In fact, our more mature patients are much more likely to complete their forms in a timely fashion than the younger population," Matthews said.

Bradbury explained that the rollout of the platform was paused due to overwhelming feedback from end users and relaunched after identifying a hospital where nearly all practices and most patients were engaged with the system, which they used as a benchmark to learn from.

"This hospital became our gold standard and along with constructive feedback from other hospitals and the first patient feedback survey, the project team was well prepared with product improvements and a new direction for the relaunch," she said.

Electronic system signatures were added to agreement treatment forms, mobile access was introduced and patient health questionnaires were integrated to allow auto-population of conditions, alerts, allergies and adverse reactions.

"The strong collaboration between the hospital teams, medical specialists and their practices was a key success factor,” she said.

The latest patient survey showed a satisfaction score of over 90 percent..

The eAdmissions platform is due to roll-out to a further six hospitals in the Southern Cross Healthcare network, with the project team planning to address further improvements once the full rollout is complete.

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