How Horizon Health reduces HR inquiries by 25%

Simplifying processes to optimize healthcare operations

Horizon Health, the second-largest Regional Health Authority in Atlantic Canada, delivers healthcare services to over 500,000 people through hospitals, primary care sites, and provincial programs. Supporting thousands of employees and hundreds of clinical research studies each year, Horizon Health needed a better way to document, share, and maintain internal processes.

That’s where Procedureflow came in, a knowledge management platform designed to help companies visualize and navigate processes more effectively. With Procedureflow, Horizon optimized how their teams access and use critical knowledge.

Two departments saw immediate results:

• HR Operations, which manages the full employee lifecycle for more than 14,000 employees.
• Clinical Research, where over 400 studies are conducted each year, is heavily regulated and requires strict compliance.

Siloed knowledge causes frustration and compliance risks

Before Procedureflow, many processes at Horizon Health were undocumented, difficult to find, or inconsistent across departments. This led to confusion, employee stress, reduced efficiency, and the loss of intellectual property when employees left with undocumented knowledge.

The highly regulated environment in Clinical Research demanded precision. But without a clear, standardized path for trials, the Research Services Department was bogged down by questions that slowed progress and increased the risk of non-compliance.

With Procedureflow, Horizon began visually mapping their processes and quickly discovered just how siloed their teams had become. They uncovered inefficiencies and process gaps that they were then able to optimize.

What once took 2.5 days to create a process now takes less than a day, sometimes as little as 5 minutes.

HR Operations: Helping 14,000 employees self-serve

The HR Operations team wanted to create self-serve information for employees across all of Horizon Health, guided by three goals of their operations strategy:

• Leverage Technology: Using tech to build automation, create integration across systems, and better inform employees.
• Evolve HR Operations Service Delivery Model: Streamline processes and increase employee flexibility by creating, maintaining, and storing knowledge in one central hub.
• Enhance Customer Experience: Provide higher quality services and build better relationships with customers.

Using Procedureflow, they documented high-volume processes and made them available enterprise-wide through an engaging, embedded experience within their intranet portal. This made critical information easier to find, consume, and update.

As a result, employees can quickly find answers on their own and customers receive faster and more reliable service. The HR team also appreciated how simple it was to maintain and update content, which helped with continued communication for employees.

Processes were accessed 40,000 times in the first 3 months, leading to a 24.9% reduction in HR inquiries and boosting employee satisfaction with onboarding to 79.5%.

Clinical Research: Standardizing complex clinical trial processes

The Clinical Trial Support Unit (CTSU) consisted of around 500 people who were involved in clinical trials. Whether confirming existing trials or launching new studies, navigating the vast amount of information was often overwhelming. Procedureflow helped by creating end-to-end processes that made it simple for everyone to successfully initiate, manage, and close clinical research opportunities.

By documenting all CTSU processes in Procedureflow, research teams and partners gained access to a single source of truth. This eliminated the need to rely on individual experts' availability. Procedureflow also enabled a continuous feedback loop, allowing researchers to contribute insights and keep knowledge up-to-date and relevant.

From reactive to proactive knowledge management

What began as a solution for improving documentation quickly became a driver of growth across Horizon Health. Procedureflow has equipped employees with a single source of truth where they can always access accurate and updated information. With visual knowledge, Horizon Health is improving day-to-day operations and creating a more confident, connected, and compliant organization.