Press release dated 16.1.2021

At a time of chaotic preparation for the organization of vaccination against covid, general practitioners all over the Czech Republic are starting to implement the virtual nurse system Emma, which already helps them to mediate communication with their patients

Emmy can already order any vaccination, and teaching Emmy to order a Covid vaccination was a matter of two minutes, says Emmy co-founder, MUDr. Ondřej Sobotka, himself a general practitioner. Emmy is unique in that when establishing a requirement, she asks the patient questions that the physician needs to know. Thus, Emmy makes sure that the patient meets the criteria for vaccination. At the same time, it gives the general practitioner information that a patient is being ordered to him from his file cabinet. This is a major handicap of the central ordering system, because of which GPs do not want patients to be ordered to them through this central system.

Emmy is already assisting practitioners in ordering for antigen testing, which would otherwise bring additional administrative burdens associated with ordering. At the moment, it is not only hospitals, but also general practitioners who take care of a large number of patients in such a way that they manage their illness at home and do not have to visit hospitals. “We are currently caring for patients we would have sent to the hospital in a different time and in the normal world. But at the moment there is no place for them in the hospital. A large number of people cannot reach us every day. Emmy will allow patients to be able to contact us at all”, says MUDr. David Halata, village general practitioner, board member of the Society of General Medicine.

Practitioners are interested in offering assistance in vaccinating the population with the covid vaccine. In some parts of the Republic, it is even possible to provide the vaccine to the offices of general practitioners, who can thus vaccinate their patients. This is more comfortable for patients and it also brings greater safety because the general practitioner knows his patients and has their complete documentation. After the first experience with the central ordering system, many seniors are in uncertainty because they did not get the deadline and it is not yet clear how they will find out about the possibility of getting the deadline.

The organization of vaccinations in the general practitioner's office can be arranged very simply by virtual nurse Emma, who at the same time offers patients the possibility of other uses, such as simply ordering a prescription or ordering a check-up. “From our experience to date, we can see that patients have become well accustomed to the new way of electronically transmitting their requests via virtual nurse Emma, and it is also appreciated by patients of senior age. There are always patients who do not like to communicate online, but such are in all age groups.” says Eva Šubrtová Dis., nurse from the practice of MUDr. Saturdays.

The first analyses of the use of virtual nurse Emma in the top three surgeries show a really rapid acceptance by patients. Already in the first weeks after the introduction of the EMA in the clinics, patients submitted their requests in up to 80% of all cases. Only about a quarter of the cases were patients contacted by telephone.