Our finalists for the Health Tech Awards 2022 in the category of ‘best solution improvement’ are:
Accurx
Overview: Accurx added a few feature called Self-Book to their Patient Triage solution last year, allowing GP practice staff to invite patients to book appointments directly into EMIS/SystmOne.
Why? Self-Book saves administrative time whilst giving staff an easy, efficient way to manage demand for appointments.
What happened? During regular practice visits last year, Accurx observed that teams using Patient Triage were spending lots of time transferring patient requests into EMIS/SystemOne. With this in mind, and following research with GP staff to better understand opinions and feedback, the team developed the Self-Book feature to make it easier for practices to action Patient Triage requests and improve efficiency. With Self-Book, GPs can allow specific patients to book themselves in for telephone appointments. Staff can choose which Patient Triage requests need a routine telephone appointment and invite patients to book themselves in. Self-Book gives patients time windows to book to prevent them booking a specific five-minute slot, risking a bottleneck if appointments do not start exactly on time. Since Self-Book pilots started in November, practices have noted benefits such as a reduction in telephone calls to the practice and a reduction in ‘did-not-attends’.
Looking ahead. Accurx aims to save time and increase efficiencies for GPs moving forward, projecting that 1579 hours have been saved using Self-Book to date.
CCube Solutions
Overview: Blackpool Teaching Hospitals has partnered with CCube Solutions to utilise electronic document and records management capabilities to deliver digital records and enhance patient care.
Why? The EDRMS project is part of a major digital transformation change programme within the trust and aims to boost clinical and organisational efficiency.
What happened? Blackpool Teaching Hospitals has implemented its EDRMS to store legacy and day-forward paper medical records, with 7500 clinical staff able to access all of the trust’s medical files: around 650,000 in total. The EDRMS provides instant access to medical records, enhances patient safety through 100 percent notes availability, improves clinical effectiveness, enhances security and auditing, and saves money. It also allows storage areas to be converted into much-needed clinical space. It supports remote and multi-user access, allowing clinicians to view records 24/7 regardless of physical location, supporting multi-disciplinary teams to work together. In addition, security and data integrity is enhanced, as digital files cannot degrade, be lost or misplaced, and data is backed up with information lifecycle management rules applied.
Looking ahead. The trust is currently procuring a new organisational-wide EPR; once this is finalised and the software deployed, a link will be added so that clinicians opening a patient’s record in the EPR can see – in context – the legacy digitised health record held in the EDRMS too, linking the two systems together.
iOWNA wHealth
Overview: Milton Keynes University Hospital has recently partnered with engagement tool iOWNA to transform clinician/patient interactions by facilitating a two-way exchange of information.
Why? Improving engagement between clinicians and patients helps the hospital to save time, makes it easier to know where patients are on their journey, and removes a lot of communication challenges. It also provides tailored and timely information for patients, improving their experience.
What happened? MKUH’s Rheumatology department has transformed manual, time-intensive processes by embracing the digital iOWNA solution, resulting in significant benefits for clinicians and for patients. The three-month pilot demonstrated a 15 percent saving overall in nursing time with an 80 percent reduction in nursing time spent on repetitive patient education, 70 percent reduction in time spent on patient information gathering, and 60 percent reduction in time spent on sourcing and distributing patient education documents. Tasks that previously required face-to-face meetings or individual phone calls can completed digitally and quickly through iOWNA’s processes.
Looking ahead. MKUH is continuing to enhance the clinician/patient relationship with planned expansions in aiding clinicians’ pre-clinic with digital forms, and iOWNA is currently integrating with MKUH’s EPR to make the process even more seamless.
Healthcare Gateway
Overview: Healthcare Gateway have launched their new Mayden iaptus (IAPT) Dataset, developed in collaboration with Mayden, to provide real-time access to vital information held within the psychological therapy services in any system, in any setting.
Why? Healthcare Gateway seek to improve the health and quality of life for all by providing the right information at the right time in the right place.
What happened? The Mayden iaptus (IAPT) Dataset includes seven tabs of data: patient demographics, episodes of care, assessments, outcome questionnaires, historic appointments, future appointments, and documents and letters. Access to the dataset enables healthcare professionals to make improved decisions based on current information and reduces crisis impact. It also gives vital time back to clinicians which was previously spent calling IAPT services for information and helps to avoid unnecessary appointments and referrals. Staff have a holisitic understand of patient needs, and everyone involved in a patient’s care is better informed to provide the right treatment, support recovery and understand current and past interactions with IAPT services.
Looking ahead. Healthcare Gateway look forward to the dataset being used to improve clinical efficiency, enhancing patient journeys, and enable better coordination of care.
Practice Unbound
Overview: Workflow Go from Practice Unbound offers a robust workflow process and an improved solution to training staff and implementation. Following customer feedback, Practice Unbound reviewed the programme and introduced several solution improvements.
Why? Customer feedback indicated a desire for more interactivity on the eLearning modules, further detail to explain the implementation journey, dummy letters for administrators to practise on, and more.
What happened: Three new modules were introduced to Workflow Go. The first, ‘Welcome’, acts as a reminder to those who are familiar with Workflow Go, and an introduction to those who are not. It sets the tone of what practices should expect during implementation. The second, ‘Roles and responsibilities of a Workflow Go GP Lead’ is designed to guide the GP through the governance framework that needs to be implemented to operate safely and effectively. The third, ‘Data Dashboard’ is a key feature designed to accurately and measure the impact of Workflow Go. Practices can quickly see the amount of GP time being released daily, implementation progress, and data to support capacity planning and avoid backlogs of work. Improvements also included a redesign of the data charts and a a new resources section.
Looking ahead. User learning data between March to June 2021 and March to June 2022 showed a 64 percent rise in the number of users utilising learning modules, and a 56 percent rise in the number of users completing the full learning programme. Practice Unbound continues to seek feedback and uses it to influence decisions for future solution improvements.
