Maccabi
            

Maccabi Healthcare Services is Israel’s leading HMO and one of the
world's largest healthcare providers with 2.5 million members. Maccabi is
recognized, both in Israel and abroad, as a unique and innovative healthcare
system, which leads the way in cutting-edge medical technology, comprehensive
and integrated computerized information systems, and sophisticated monitoring
and evaluation tools. Maccabi operates more than 300 medical centers and
clinics throughout Israel and employs more than 15,000 workers including ~5,500
physicians and ~1,500 nurses.

Israel’s leading health maintenance organization, Maccabi Healthcare Services, is a full-service HMO that provides patients with a holistic medical treatment for every medical need, including specialists in all fields of medicine, public and private hospitals, dental clinics, and a pharmacy chain.

It has invested dozens of years in developing top-tier patient services with all its data and business logic stored in core systems. Servicing more than 2.4 million members, Maccabi required constant updating to its systems.

In 2020, it decided to modernize its legacy AS/400 application, while preserving the business logic, to regenerate and standardize its users’ desktops, providing a better experience and easier access to relevant data to improve efficiency.

Maccabi wanted to create better user screen flows to streamline and aggregate data, and also combine it with data coming in from other systems throughout the organization —presenting all the relevant data needed to get to an informed decision on one screen.

Digital foundation

Maccabi has been undergoing a consistent digital transformation program, which CIO Guy Ram believes is the foundation that allows it to be agile.

“Technology changes how we can provide healthcare, preparing us to make quicker decisions and deliver new services for patients right away, while ensuring the highest quality,” Ram said. “Quality is a gamechanger, everything must be of the highest standard, because anything less may risk patient lives.”

Users—particularly from younger generations—were frustrated with having to access multiple terminal-like “green screens” to get to needed data. Maccabi knew that, to better deal with customer requests and ongoing changes presented by new situations (like the COVID-19 pandemic), it had to streamline and simplify the user experience, while making it easy to adopt new changes and procedures in the system.

Time for change

As part of its larger strategic digitalization program, Maccabi chose to modernize its module for the “Child Development Centers” to improve the desktop experience and develop new rules and processes. The modernization project included 15 different screens, so its number-one priority was to make sure all the information is laid out in front of users so they could to make informed decisions and quicker updates.

Modernization goals:

• Create an improved and accessible workspace, unified and tailored to users' needs
• Enable cross-system ease of use to avoid jumping between screens
• Shorten the processes of establishing and updating eligibility components and quotas to improve efficiency

Maccabi’s options were to either improve and modernize the existing system, or “rip and replace” and completely rewrite the application logic and develop a new UI in a PHP or .NET environment.

Relationships matter

Thanks to a 10-year relationship between Maccabi and Software AG, the company chose the first option and tapped Software AG's webMethods ApplinX to create the new UI.

As part of this activity, improvements were made to existing programs to streamline processes and adapt to new regulations or changes in member eligibility.

The HMO’s relationship with Software AG meant that Maccabi’s development team worked alongside Software AG Professional Services experts to achieve the successful implementation.

From appointments by mobile app to engagement on the website, Maccabi’s employees can now use a streamlined, simplified UI that shortens service and operation times. The unified and clear presentation is easy to use for caregivers.