Taking good care of healthcare: Chris and the TestBot team at Gelre ziekenhuizen

Gelre ziekenhuizen recently switched to Chipsoft HiX. Not only did the implementation and migration demand attention, the ongoing management that follows is just as demanding. HiX brings new releases and hotfixes every few weeks, and all of them need careful testing. Automated testing plays an increasingly important role in that.
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Chris Bertens works as a test automation specialist at Cerios and, together with the TestBot team, is responsible for automated testing at Gelre ziekenhuizen. He also spends a few hours a week at the hospital as a consultant. His goal is clear: take work off the hands of healthcare staff and functional managers by making testing smarter and more manageable.
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HiX delivers a new release every two to three weeks, with a go-live every four to six weeks. That means a lot of testing: new functionality has to be checked, and existing components have to keep working flawlessly. At that pace, manual testing is barely sustainable.
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“Doing all of that manually is incredibly time-consuming,” says Chris. “That's why we developed the Cerios TestBot. It automates regression testing around updates and hotfixes, taking a lot of work off hospitals' hands.” TestBot runs automated tests based on standard HiX functionality, supplemented with hospital-specific configurations.
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Where Chris used to work mostly behind his laptop, his role has since broadened. He is at Gelre ziekenhuizen every week to guide the use of TestBot and transfer knowledge. “I train functional managers, shadow processes and ask a lot of questions to really understand how the work gets done. In turn, colleagues at the hospital can easily come to me with testing questions.”
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Being on the work floor means short lines of communication and faster alignment. It also lets Chris see the impact of automated testing in practice right away. Less repetitive testing means more time for other tasks, and he hears that in conversations with healthcare staff. “The pressure in healthcare is high. When you see that automation really saves time and brings some calm, you know why you're doing it. Many colleagues are enthusiastic because TestBot takes work off their hands for good.”
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More and more hospitals, from regional institutions to university medical centers, are choosing TestBot as part of their testing approach. Gelre ziekenhuizen is now one of them. TestBot is based on standard HiX content, but takes local differences into account. Experience from earlier projects makes it increasingly easy to apply this approach at new hospitals.
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The combination of technology and on-site presence proves important here. Chris acts as the link between the TestBot team and the hospital. “HiX supports many processes, from medication and OR scheduling to logistics. To build good tests, you need the knowledge of healthcare staff. By working together and sharing knowledge, you can set up your testing far more precisely.”
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Alongside TestBot, Gelre ziekenhuizen also uses the test management tool SupportBook, which brings release notes, changes and test results together in one place. Together, these components ensure a manageable release process and reliable quality of the EHR, so healthcare staff can focus on what ultimately matters: good care for patients.

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