Supporting primary care when services are disrupted
The Medinz communication platform played an important role in keeping people and communities safe when a major storm struck Auckland, taking out the power.
At a Glance
- Challenge: Severe weather causing service disruption and communication challenges for primary care providers
- Solution: Medinz clinical communications platform
- Outcome: Critical information delivered quickly to primary care providers, supporting continuity of essential health services
The Challenge
On 10 April 2018, a huge storm left large parts of the Auckland region – and many primary healthcare providers – without power. This occurred just months after two of Auckland’s District Health Boards had started using Medinz as their primary care communications platform.
The storm and resulting power outage became the first real test of Medinz’s ability to prioritise sending critical clinical information to GPs and other prinary care providers. In a context where normal communication channels were disrupted, health agencies needed a way to get timely, trusted updates to urgent care centres, general practices, pharmacies and other primary care providers.
The Solution: Medinz in Action
During the storm and in the five days that followed, health agencies used Medinz to send nine critical messages to at least one contact person in each affected organisation.
Because communication networks were in disarray, Medinz’s ability to distribute messages via fax, email and text ensured information reached providers quickly – with all messages delivered within 10 minutes of publication.
The Medinz response was implemented by a regional steering group that included leadership from emergency management, public health, clinical directors, communications teams, and primary care liaisons – enabling coordinated decision-making across the system.
The Outcome
Essential services supported
Medinz helped urgent care centres, general practices, pharmacies, and laboratories stay informed and operational during the outage.
Rapid, measurable impact
Labtests used Medinz to alert GPs about branch closures and request delays to routine blood testing. Weekly test collections dropped from 12,000 to 3,000, allowing critical testing to be prioritised while power was restored.
Faster system coordination
Using Medinz’s two-way direct messaging, DHBs quickly identified which providers had lost power. This information was relayed to Vector, enabling healthcare facilities to be prioritised during power restoration. Previously, gathering this information manually could take up to three days – Medinz reduced this to just a few hours.
Using Medinz meant we felt confident that we could reach general practices and urgent care centres very quickly and easily with our urgent message. As a result, we saw a real-time response of practitioners following our guidance. Medinz really showed its value enabling us to focus on the most important patient test results.
Saad Mansour, Quality Manager, Labtests
Working Together Under Pressure
This case study highlights the importance of coordination and partnership during system-wide disruption. By providing a single, trusted communication channel, Medinz supported collaboration across health agencies, laboratories, primary care providers, and infrastructure partners – helping the system respond more effectively when conditions were at their most challenging.
When communication really matters
Book a demo to see how Healthpoint supports clear, coordinated communication during disruption.
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