Trust sees 65% uptake in 3 months
In doing so they reduced letter templates from 8,000 to three. Read their story.
Project highlights
- Secure online digital portal, available 24/7
- Easier for patients to manage their appointments
- Went from managing 8,000 letter types to just three templates
- More than a 99.9% saving
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) provides acute hospital services to a population of around 600,000 patients across Hampshire and parts of west Berkshire. Like many NHS Trusts, appointment DNA rates were high often leaving patients waiting a long time for appointment slots.
Previously, HHFT posted appointment letters to patients. With over 8,000 different letter templates available it was difficult to manage and inconsistent. Sending out appointment letters was a costly admin burden.
And when the letter was on its way there was no guarantee it would arrive on time, if at all. Leaving patients having to call in to the hospital and rearrange their appointment. There were a whole heap of appointment slots potentially going to waste.
There’s a simple digital way
In 2019 the Trust undertook a Patient Survey which identified that 75% of patients would prefer to receive appointment notifications by email or SMS. With these changing patient expectations, this confirmed to Hampshire that they needed to reassess how they notified patients about their appointments, making it more convenient for patients to manage their own appointments.
HHFT implemented Netcall’s Patient Hub to make it easier for patients to manage their appointments. Patient Hub is a secure online digital portal, available 24/7. Patients just need their phone or computer and their date of birth to confirm, rebook or cancel appointments at the touch of a button.
Patient Hub is making patient experiences easier and faster
Feedback from patients is positive. In just three months, an average of 65% of patients started to use the online portal. A patient case study showed the whole process from sending the appointment to rescheduling the appointment takes less than 10 minutes.
Other patient feedback includes:
- Mrs W mother of a paediatric patient was amazed at the ease and speed. She attended a consultant appointment with her child, and then before she had left the hospital to go home, she had the e-outcome report and the next appointment offered and accepted.
- Patient B responded within 3 minutes after the booking advisor had sent the digital notification that they were not able to attend and needed to rebook the appointment. The booking advisor found a slot for the following day, and within 10 minutes of the original message all was confirmed. Patient B was relieved not to have to wait, and the booking team was pleased to see an otherwise empty slot used immediately.
- Patient C is 84 years old, has a standard mobile phone and uses an iPad. A project team lead supported her to log in using the iPad. She gets call notifications by email (as well as SMS) and is able to successfully manage her appointments.
Hear it for yourself
Accurate consistent patient letters and leaflets
Instead of sending multiple letters to patients, HHFT now sends digital letters straight to the patient’s device. They have gone from managing 8,000 letter types to just three templates. That’s more than a 99.9% saving.
Conditional formatting meets all clinical departments needs allowing rapid updates. Short snippets allow for rapid extra wording inclusions. With the majority of appointments currently being conducted by phone or video, templates are tailored for the appointment type; phone, video or in-person.
The whole process is auditable for quality and clinical uniformity which makes it easy to ensure information is up-to-date.
We are hugely excited by this leap forward and strongly believe that this will help our patients to be better supported in their care.
Dr Tamara Everington, Haematology Consultant and Associate Medical Director for Improvement at HHFT said, “We are hugely excited by this leap forward and strongly believe that this will help our patients to be better supported in their care. We have listened to patient feedback and are focused on making sure patients who come into our hospitals have the best possible experience, from the time they get their first appointment notification to when they have had the care and treatment they need. As well as ensuring patient information remains secure, we know that this will be more cost effective for the NHS and help reduce our carbon footprint.”
Alex Whitfield, Chief Executive at Hampshire Hospitals added: “This is just one of the ways we are working towards our vision of provide outstanding care for every patient. We are already seeing the positive impact of this work for our patients, and the time staff previously spent on sending out appointment letters is being used to better support patients and make the most of every available appointment. I want to thank all the teams involved in making this a success so far, and I am looking forward to continuing to improve patient care through our digital care journey.”
Learn more about Patient HubRelated content
Make significant time and cost savings and support your green targets with consistent, accurate and flexible patient letter templates. The Letter Templates feature in Patient Hub shows you how.
Enable patients to self-serve with their appointments, with our NHS login approved patient portal. Increase capacity across the trust, optimise clinical utilisation and reduce your waiting lists.
Reduce costs, optimise clinic performance and deliver a better patient experience with Netcall Patient Hub.