Health Innovation Hub Ireland pilot demonstrates major reduction in hospital referral wait times through AI-Enabled solution
Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) has announced the successful completion of a pilot project with Irish SME Yellow Schedule, demonstrating significant improvements in hospital referral management through i’ts digital solution, Triage Link.
The pilot was conducted at South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) and addressed one of the most pressing challenges in the Irish healthcare system, long patient waiting lists and delays in accessing specialist care.
As of March 2026, there were more than 631,600 patients in Ireland waiting for hospital care. A key contributor to these delays is the continued reliance on paper-based referral systems, which can result in inefficiencies, lost documentation, limited visibility, and delayed clinical decision-making.
Yellow Schedule’s Triage Link platform was designed to digitise and streamline the referral pathway. Developed in collaboration with clinical, administrative, and management staff, the solution enables referrals to be received, reviewed, assigned, and triaged electronically via web and mobile devices.
The system replaces manual, paper-based processes with a structured digital workflow, providing real-time visibility of referral status and enabling consultants to complete triage remotely. It also captures valuable data to support operational oversight and service planning.
Strong Results from HIHI Pilot
HIHI facilitated the co-design, implementation, and evaluation of the solution, providing clinical liaison and project management support throughout the pilot.
The results from SIVUH demonstrate a substantial impact:
- 99.6% reduction in referral processing time (from 8.4 days to 0.03 days)
- 80% reduction in consultant triage time (from 16.4 days to 3.2 days)
- 87% reduction in total end-to-end triage time (from 24.8 days to 3.23 days)
To date, over 8,000 referrals have been processed through the platform by 38 hospital staff, including consultants and central appointments teams.
The pilot highlights how digital innovation and AI-enabled solutions can significantly improve efficiency, reduce administrative burden, and support faster clinical decision-making ultimately improving patient access to care.
Speaking about the pilot project, Martina Skelly, CEO of Yellow Schedule, said: “Working with HIHI and SIVUH enabled rapid co-design with clinical and administrative end users and generated quantifiable evidence of significantly reduced time-to-clinical-decision. This pilot strengthens our ability to scale and provides the evidence base required to support adoption within the HSE.”
HIHI continues to support the development and validation of innovative healthcare solutions that address real system challenges. This pilot demonstrates the value of collaboration between healthcare providers and industry in delivering impactful, scalable improvements across the health service.
Dr. Tanya Mulcahy, Director of Health Innovation Hub Ireland welcomed the results of the pilot with Yellow Schedule and the South Infirmiary Victoria University Hospital: “This is an example of how when you bring the right elements together, Irish based companies can solve real healthcare problems. The South Infirmary team, through the vision of Helen Donovan CEO, have always supported Health Innovation Hub Ireland projects- in this case the collaboration between HIHI, Yellow Schedule and the SIVUH resulted in impactful outcomes and a problem solved”.
Read the full case study here: https://hih.ie/downloads/case-studies/HIHI-case-study_Yellow-Schedule.pdf