How does it Help?              How does it Work?        Summary of Benefits            FAQs

Background

A new survey published in the summer of 2003 shows that the cost to the NHS of patients who fail to turn up to see their GP is £18 per missed appointment. Its findings reveal that with 442,307 missed appointments every week, the Doctors who took part in the survey decided that there needs to be a solution to the ongoing problem. The finding came from a survey published yesterday by DPP (Developing Patient Partnerships) and the Institute of Healthcare management after conducting research in 649 GP Practices.

Non-attendance increases waiting times as well as costing the NHS over £300 million pounds a year. The majority of GP’s surveyed also backed measures to remind patients when their appointment is.  This is good news for Leicester based firm Voice Connect who have spent the past 2 years developing a system which gives patients the ability to book their appointment at a time that suits, and reminds them prior to their appointment when it is due. 

Doctors can integrate the Patient Partner system to their practice to allow patients to call in to the surgery 24 hours a day and book their own appointment.  “The system can detect where the spaces are in the Doctors diaries and this gives patients the ability to choose an appointment which suits them best’ says Voice Connect’s Managing Director Stefan Olsberg.  Once the patient has confirmed the appointment slot that they want, the system sends them a text message re-stating the time and date. The system also sends them another text message 24 hours before their appointment as a reminder.  This encourages the patient to cancel the appointment if they no longer need it, which in turn reduces non-attendance and makes the appointment slot available to the next caller.

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How does Patient partner help?

 Patient Partner gives patients the choice of either seeing their own doctor, or the first available doctor if they are in a particular rush. It can also offer options such as seeing a nurse or specifying only female or male doctors.  

“The system has been designed to be as easy to use as possible, but patients who wish to book in the normal way can still do so. However this system is targeted at the group most likely to fail to turn up for their appointment. They are the 18 to 35 year olds who are most at home with technology and text messaging.” says David Harrison, Voice Connect’s Technical Director who was responsible for developing the product.

Patient Partner systems have been tested at a number of locations across the country, where feedback has been encouraging.  ‘With any new idea it always takes time to be accepted. We have produced a number of special posters and letters to encourage patients to find out more about how they can book appointment in a convenient way.  

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt was impressed by Patient Partner when she recently visited Voice Connect Offices, calling it ‘A wonderful example of how a British company can create a powerful solution to an everyday problem. It benefits both the patient and the GP.’  

Following a number of articles in the media about problems arising from patients’ failures to attend appointments with their GP, voicemail and unified communications firm Voice Connect decided to look into the problem. After a year spent talking to GPs and researching the medical press, Patient Partner was the result. It is intended to help patients receive a better service, give receptionists a more evenly spread workload and reduce the number of out-of-hours requests for doctors’ visits, thereby saving money, time and frustration.

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How does it work?  

Patient Partner allows patients to book, re-arrange or cancel appointments automatically at any time of day or night, using an ordinary telephone. In essence, it allows the telephone system to talk to your booking system.

Having first identified themselves with a PIN number, the patient can then access free slots in your booking system. Once they have given the parameters they would like (which practitioner, time range for appointment, etc.) the appointments’ database is searched for suitable slots.

Patients are given a simple instruction card which we provide to GPs to give out. What does the patient hear when they ring in? ‘Welcome to XX surgery. If you wish to book an appointment press 1…’ etc. They have the option to speak to a receptionist at any time by pressing a number.   

The optional text-messaging component of Patient Partner then automatically sends out a message to confirm the booking. Nearer the time of the appointment it will text the patient to remind them of it. (This system works as long as the patient booking the appointment has a valid mobile number.) Once the system is set up and mobile numbers are checked (and updated) the system will carry on running itself without any involvement from staff.

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Summary of Benefits

Patient Partner is intended to:

·        Reduce missed appointments and so…

·        …reduce the time other patients have to wait to see their doctor

·        Ease the pressure on receptionists

·        Reduce the number of premature out-of hours call-outs

·        Ease congestion on the switchboard.

·        Free staff to become multi-skilled e.g. Receptionist trained to be a phlobotomist.

·        Raise staff morale and retention of much needed knowledge base.

·        Do today’s work today (helping with advanced access)

·        Give Patients more access and control.

Here are some of the benefits in more detail:

Reducing waiting times.

According to a joint Doctor Patient Partnership (DPP) and Institute of Healthcare Management survey, almost 17 million GP appointments and nearly 5½ million-practice nurse appointments are wasted each year by patients who don’t attend. Over half of the GP surgeries which responded to the survey believe that patients simply forget about their appointments, and these practices expressed frustration that patients did not always value health services.

Patient Partner is intended to reduce missed appointments in four main ways.

1. By giving the patient a choice of appointments, they can pick a time when they are more likely to be able to attend.
2. By confirming the appointment via text message seconds after it has been booked.
3. By reminding the patient 24 hours before their appointment is due to take place, using a text message.
4. By allowing patients to call in around the clock (except during back-up times) to make, cancel or move their appointment. Instead of having to wait until the surgery has opened to change or cancel an appointment, the patient can act as soon it becomes obvious that their appointment is no longer appropriate.

Whilst it is clear that not all patients are likely to use Patient Partner (older patients in particular may prefer the one-to-one contact involved in talking to the receptionist) the group that most frequently fails to turn up for appointments is the 18-30 year olds. This is also the group most likely to have a mobile phone and to be able to use the technology.

Reduce the time a patient has to wait to see their doctor.

Because fewer appointments will be missed, there will be fewer unplanned gaps in the doctor’s schedule.

Ease the pressure on receptionists.

The biggest single factor in stress in the workplace is the feeling of being out of control of your situation. When busy workloads are imposed upon people who feel there is little that they can do to cope with them, stress is more likely to occur. Whilst researching the impact of Patient Partner we asked receptionists about their working day. They reported that they suffer from huge volumes of calls within a short period in the mornings, making this the most stressful part of the day. It is the part of the job they like least, and probably the most likely reason that they might be tempted to leave.

Patient Partner would greatly reduce the numbers of patients calling in at this time because many could already have booked an appointment the previous evening or overnight, using the automated booking system. Additionally, four patients can call into the system simultaneously to book, cancel or re-arrange their appointment. This would leave the receptionist better able to deal with patients who still wished to call in and speak to them personally, or deal with more complicated calls needing advice, joint appointments, extended appointments, and so on.

Even patients who are not familiar with telephone banking and other automated phone booking systems should be able to book their appointments. With an increasing number of patients booking routine appointments through the automatic Patient Partner system, a great deal of receptionist time will be freed up for other tasks.

Reduce the number of out-of-hours call-outs.

If patients can call in during the night to book an appointment for the next day, they can weigh up more easily whether they really need to call the doctor personally in the middle of the night. If they know they can definitely obtain an appointment for 8.45 the next morning, then they may decide that they don’t need a night visit.

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FAQs

How could it help me?

It would reduce the pressure on your workforce – particularly receptionists. This results in receptionists who are likely to be happier in what they do, and therefore less likely to leave.

Practices would be able to see patients more quickly and treat them earlier. They would be able to ensure that they reached the various service level agreements set down by the Government and PCTs regarding access times for appointments, and number of phone rings before a call is answered.

Why do I need it?

Your practice needs it if you are interested in improving patient access, staff welfare, reducing DNA rates, using staff resources more effectively, saving money, retaining staff for longer periods of time and reducing patient frustration.

Patient Partner can also be used to set up a mini-call centre within your practice, announcing changed opening times, reminding patients about booster jabs, immunisation programmes, flu jabs etc. Many of these can be sent out as a text message saving approx. 40p each time over the total cost of sending out a letter.

Security

What about security? Nobody can gain access to a patient’s records through the system – including the patient himself or herself.  Patients need to enter both a PIN number and their date of birth in order to book or change an appointment. 

What do I need in the way of hardware and expertise?

The only space that is taken up by Patient Partner is the hardware that we supply which is housed within a computer, similar in size to the average PC.  This is capable of integrating your phone system with your booking system.  It does not need to sit in the reception area, and can be administered from any desk in the practice. Ideally the practice needs five extensions taken from its switchboard, although it can work with direct telephone lines. 

On a day-to-day basis the system requires nobody’s involvement because it runs itself. If a practice wishes to set up a special announcement or make changes to parts of the system, these could easily be done by anybody who is capable of operating a standard PC.

Full training is given in person at the surgery, which takes normally half a day.

For more information or to arrange an appointment please call 0870 770 2670 or e-mail ppartner@ds-telecom.co.uk.