Dear Vula team

“As one of the team of dedicated specialists working at the Brackengate Intermediate Care Facility in the Western Cape, on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic, I can undoubtedly say that the Vula Referral application has become an indispensable cog in our armoury in the fight against COVID-19.”

We always knew that the digitization of referral pathways and referral practice would eventually become a norm in South Africa. Since its inception, Vula has standardized and simplified this process.

As a 100% Covid hospital, we accept COVID positive management referrals from 13 major hospitals and emergency units across the Western Cape. Since its opening in July 2020 at the start of the pandemic in South Africa, we have had close to 6500 admissions at our unit primarily managed though the Vula platform. With an average referral rate of between 60-70 referrals per day for one clinician to manage during our wave peaks, it would have been impossible to manage this without a simplified digital referral management solution. 

The application’s simplicity of use and modular nature make it easy to send and receive referrals, without the hassle of needing to sit at a fixed line discussing transfers the whole day. The chat function makes engaging and having a discussion with the referring clinicians much easier & baseline vitals, charts, radiology images, reports and images clinical signs can easy be sent. “Vula’s” can also be transferred between covering consultants and referrers, so continuity of the care chain is maintained. This also mostly eliminates the need to resend or rewrite referrals, which wastes more time.

The app’s mobility also makes it so much easier for me to respond to Vula referrals at any time - day or night as well as while I’m doing my clinical rounds. This allows my day and time to be manageable without getting bogged down with the volume of paperwork and lists at a desk all day.

Vula is an integral management tool for all our admissions at Brackengate and I am thankful that I can manage incredibly high volumes of referrals easier and with improved accuracy because of it. This has naturally allowed me to improve and maximise my time to focus more on per patient care to ensure that we are able to meet the high care demands that this illness has needed for successful care and treatment.

Thank you to the entire Vula team for this wonderful little gem of an application. It has made our demanding lives during this pandemic so much easier! 

Warmest Regards

Dr MF Abdullah

Consultant / Specialist Physician

MBChB (Stell), FCP (SA)

Brackengate ICF