Transforming Primary Care12/09/2017
PATIENT ONLINE
LARGE NUMBER OF PATIENTS
REGISTERING AT GP PRACTICES
March 2017
NHS Bexley CCG
Background
In south-east London, NHS Bexley CCG has seen a large increase in patients registering for Patient Online Services. As of 31 March 2017, NHS Bexley CCG had a total practice size of 27 with a patient population of 237,751. Since September 2016, practices in Bexley have seen an increase in patients registering for GP online services. In September 2016, 10.7% of patients were signed up to use GP online services. During HLP’s Estates and Transformation Technology Fund Project (ETTF), this had increased to 20.4% by March 2017. This showed an increase of 9.7% in those registering for Patient Online.
At the beginning of the ETTF project, only about half of practices in Bexley had activated Patient Online, which meant that many Bexley patients would have to physically visit a GP practice to register for an account. By the end of the project, all but one of the practices had enabled online registrations giving patients the opportunity to register for an online account remotely. A vouching model consisting of both a professional and personal vouch would confirm the patient’s access for transactional services without the patients having to visit the practice. This was then supported with an SMS campaign inviting patients to register for the services on offer. It was very clear that promoting online registrations was the best way to increase public uptake with Patient Online, rather than requiring patients to visit the practice for an account. There were over 80,000 texts where sent during this period, across all the Bexley practices to their patients.
How they achieved this?
NHS Bexley CCG arranged visits with all practices in Bexley, some of whom were visited on multiple occasions. The two Patient Online facilitators from NHS Bexley CCG covered various aspects of the Patient Online programme with the relevant practice staff. This included ensuring Patient Online was set up correctly, discussing what promotions had already been undertaken in the practices, whilst providing marketing materials and ideas for increased promotion to patients.
Furthermore, HLP addressed any concerns or queries that staff had regarding the implementation of Patient Online for patients, and they provided guidance where it was required.
NHS Bexley CCG recruited two Patient Online facilitators at the beginning of January 2017. They then engaged with HLP TPC to understand the full requirements of the Patient Online programme and undertook training with the relevant system suppliers to better understand the technological aspects of the project.
NHS Bexley CCG’s in-house communications team produced a number of resources for practices to ensure messaging across the borough was consistent, for example; website narrative, briefs to engage practice staff, presentations to update practices on progress and SMS message templates were used. Using this narrative, the CCG communicated the Patient Online programme to practices via:
- Practice manager forums – the CCG’s GP online facilitators spoke at each forum and encouraged practice managers to share their experiences of using Patient Online from set up through to implementation and local marketing
- Locality meetings – CCG directors reminded practices to ensure they made Patient Online a priority
- Primary care development briefings – the CCG’s GP online facilitators included a detailed update in each briefing to highlight how practices were progressing with the project to ensure they reached the targeted 20% benchmark
- CCG bulletins – including fortnightly updates to remind CCG and practice staff as well as the CCG’s governing body about Patient Online, linking back to useful resources
- Engagement events – the CCG’s GP online facilitators attended events to engage patient participation group members and patient council representatives about Patient Online and to encourage patients to sign-up
- GP engagement events – time was dedicated at one of the CCG’s quarterly engagement events to ensure the Patient Online programme was explored. A practice administrator was supported by the CCG’s Patient Online facilitators to give a presentation at this event to share their experiences of setting up Patient Online. This presentation was well-received by practices who further sought the support of the CCG’s GP online facilitators.
NHS Bexley CCG’s Patient Online facilitators also arranged one-to-one appointments with each of the borough’s 27 practices. During these visits, the facilitators covered all aspects of the GP-facing side of the programme, including their technical set up, staff requirements and duties, public promotion, as well as identifying any queries and concerns the practice had.
Through visiting the practices, NHS Bexley CCG found that sending promotional SMS text messages to patients over the age of 16, was the most successful method to get new patients to register for Patient Online.
As nearly all practices had enabled online registrations, text message campaigns contained a direct link to the relevant Patient Online website for each practice. This allowed any interested patient to be able to sign up for online services directly on their personal phone or computer without ever having to visit or contact the practice.
Local marketing efforts were also increased to help promote the participation of Patient Online. For example, as well as SMS messaging, the CCG included an article in the Bexley Magazine, which was sent to every home in the borough.
Practices in Bexley delivering online services:
Following additional local efforts of the ETTF project, many GP practices in Bexley have seen an increase in the number of patients signing up to Patient Online.
One example of this is Slade Green Medical Centre who had a patient population of 7,610 in September 2016, with only 2.6% of patients registered for Patient Online. In March 2017, 7,971 patients were registered at this practice and 10.77% had registered to use Patient Online – an increase of 8.17%. Despite this six month period, the increase in activity occurred in February and March, following the support of the CCG’s Patient Online facilitators made available by the HLP TPC ETTF project.
Slade Green Medical CentreNumber of patients registered for Patient Online
Date / Patient population / Number of patients registered / Percentage of patients registered
September 2016 / 7,610 / 198 / 2.6%
March 2017 / 7,971 / 651 / 10.77%
A practice visit was conducted by Bexley’s two facilitators with the practice manager in late February 2017. This meeting covered all aspects of Patient Online, including their technical configuration of the system, staff responsibilities and patient promotion. Outcomes included the activation of online registrations and allowing their patients to sign up to online services directly from the website without needing to contact the practice. This was then accompanied by a bulk promotional text message targeted at non-online users with a direct link to the website.
Additionally, the practice manager’s concerns and queries were addressed in a timely manner, enabling her to progress with the implementation of the project swiftly, benefitting patients. Following the meeting, the practice manager became very proactive in public promotion with the service, including sending out regular bulk text messages to patients, increased advertisement in the practice waiting area and actively promoting Patient Online at locality meetings.
Belvedere Medical Centre had a patient population of 9,390 in September 2016, with 9.99% of patients registered for GP online services. By March 2017, the patient population was 9,547 and 24.50% of patients were registered to use Patient Online, an increase of 14.51%.
Belvedere Medical CentreNumber of patients registered for Patient Online
Date / Patient population / Number of patients registered / Percentage of patients registered
September 2016 / 9,390 / 930 / 9.99%
March 2017 / 9,547 / 2,339 / 24.5%
NHS Bexley CCG’s Patient Online facilitators had an initial visit to Belvedere Medical Centre, to discuss technical requirements. As the practice was keen to launch Patient Online swiftly, a number of milestones were agreed to ensure local implantation. A second visit was arranged to revisit these milestones, which were all met. This visit was also an opportunity to support the practice with their local marketing efforts to ensure patients were easily able to learn more and sign-up to Patient Online.
CONTACT: David Blows, Junior Primary Care Facilitator,
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