Vale Medical Centre Practice Case Study. Final14.08.17

Vale Medical Centre Practice case study. Final14.08.17

Patient Online

Offering online registration and booking of appointments at GP practices

Vale Medical Centre Practice - Lewisham

March 2017

Background

In Lewisham, the Vale Medical Centre is currently experiencing a high increase in patients registering for online services at their practice despite having a high transient population. They began to offer online services two years ago when it was first available ensuring 50% of their appointment book was made available online for patients to book. They have a practice list size of 12,398 with over 37% (4574) of their population registered with an online account. They knew that it would be important to offer appointments online for patients to be able to access and ensured communication was sent to all patients to promote the online functionality and availability.

How they achieved this?

The practice focused on their communication to patients to be able to engage them and ensure they were aware of the process of obtaining an online account. This included adding an option in 2012 for patients to provide their email addresses on the registration form, as well as making sure to follow up with those whose writing was illegible on the registration form, just to clarify the correct email address.

The practice also took extended measures to run reports within EMISWeb (system supplier) for those over 16 and those not registered for Online Services. They then targeted these patients with a direct SMS campaign stating: ‘Do you know you can sign up for Patient Access?’

Management of appointments

The practice offers embargoed GP routine online appointments at 7.30pm every evening. This allows patients enough time to access these appointments before they are released the next day.

The practice restricts appointments if a patient has more than two DNAs. After the initial DNA, patients are sent a reminder email that they can cancel online but next time they will lose access to online appointments for six months. Currently the practice has an average of 14 DNAs per month for patients booking online with a practice average of 62 DNAs per month overall for all GP appointments, this service is not only saving time for practice but approximately £1524 in non-cash releasing savings against the London average. (These were sourced from searches run on a monthly basis by the Vale Medical Centre).

As the system supplier allows patients to sign up and make their first appointment online via their Online Registration functionality, Vale Medical Centre request their patients to bring proof of Identity to their first appointment bookedonline to support the registration process.

“This allows us to be better prepared for the day’s work. If all the online bookable appointments have been taken, we know it is going to be a busy day.” Stuart Hall, IT Manager.

As the practice is increasing in population and has a high transient population, they continue to promote their online services via:

• SMS campaigns that are sent out to patients on a quarterly basis
• Email campaigns that are sent out to patients on a quarterly basis
• Promoting online services via answer phone message and email signature
• SMS campaigns for flu, diabetes, cervical smear tests

Vale Medical Centre Performance

• 50% of appointments are available online at the practice
• Practice list size of 12,398 with over 37% (4574) of their population registered with an online account
• Average of 14 DNAs per month booked online appointments. Average of 62 DNAs per month overall for all GP appointments
• Online service not only saves time for practice but approximately £1524 in non-cash releasing savings for DNA’s alone against the London average (sourced from searches run on a monthly basis by the Vale Medical Centre)

CONTACT: STUART HALL, Vale Medical Centre, IT Manager -