clinic appointments Archives - Page 4 of 6

Reaching out

A study in the USA has revealed the benefits of automated telephone calls for patients with hypertension. Taking a sample of 64,773 hypertension patients, half were sent a recorded phone message inviting them to have their blood pressure monitored at a clinic whilst the rest received no such invitation.

After four weeks it was found that 32.5% of those who had received a call had controlled their blood pressure against a base of 23.7% for those who had not received a call. Although researchers did not collect data on measures taken by patients to control blood pressure it is believed the calls played an important part in raising patient awareness.

Certainly this study mirrors the findings of other surveys in the way in which patient care can be improved by a simple call. Whether by encouraging patients to have a check up or replacing costly health visits with a simple call, the telephone is increasingly playing its part in enhancing health care.

One particularly successful way in which phone calls are being brought into the front line is in reminding patients about their appointments. Whether issued via automated phone message or by text, a simple reminder can make a substantial contribution towards reducing the number of “no shows.”

This has two benefits. Firstly it encourages patients to attend booked appointments and secondly it encourages them to notify the health practice should they be unable to attend for any reason. With an early warning of a cancelled appointment the practice has the chance to book in another patient; thus benefitting the practice, the patient and boosting the overall level of patient care.

In our ever busier lives, it is inevitable that we will forget appointments from time to time and an automated phone or text message can be that vital memory jogger which we all need. Health care practitioners from opticians to physiotherapists and even vets are using messaging for everything from a reminder to pick up some new medication or book a check up to reminders about appointments which have been made. For example this writer received a text from their vet recently reminding them to pick up a fresh batch of worming medicine for a pet.

In summary, phone reminders can save “no shows, they can ensure patients receive the treatment which they need and they can help to keep health practitioners busy at all times.

Telephone triage

A survey of 1,195 GPs, practice managers and nurses by Campden Health has revealed that the use of telephone triage is gaining in popularity. 56% of practice managers polled revealed that some form of triage is used with 9% of practices triaging all of their patient calls.

Surprisingly those who practice triage reported a wide range of success with some reporting as much as 60% of patient problems being solved without the need to see a doctor whilst other practices only reported a 1% success rate. However 95% of respondents rated triage as either moderately or extremely successful so it is understandable why the practice is spreading across the NHS.

One drawback uncovered by the survey was the fact that in 13% of cases untrained receptionists were being used to conduct the triage and overall 48% had not received any telephone triage training. Nevertheless with surveys showing that doctors daily see 6-10 patients who have no medical needs, if triage can eliminate these unnecessary appointments it will free up valuable treatment time for those who are in need of care as well as more speedily directing patients to more appropriate resources such as social services or other health professionals.

When it comes to other health services, using the services of a trained receptionist to take calls and make appointments can also make a difference to the working day. Virtual receptionist services which use friendly and well trained staff can help healthcare professionals to provide the best level of service which they can to their patients. With no ringing telephone to interrupt treatments and a friendly receptionist taking care of appointment booking, message taking and appointment reminders, the health professional can carry out the task which they were trained for rather than become bogged down in administration.

Better still, a virtual assistant can help to keep the appointment book filled. Appointment reminders have been shown to increase attendance rates and in the event of a cancellation the receptionist will be on hand to take calls which could potentially fill the vacant slot. And with a trained virtual assistant the professional image of the health practice will be maintained.

Divide and conquer

A hospital in Derbyshire has been reaping the benefits of a new cleaning rota. Using an idea gleaned from overseas, the Royal Derby Hospital split its cleaning workforce into teams, each responsible for specific areas such as corridors or toilets. Previously a single cleaner had been responsible for an entire ward or area of the hospital.

The new system of team cleaning by area has lead to a reduction in cross-infections, traditionally a pre-cursor of the need to close wards for deep cleaning. In fact this new working pattern has been so successful that the hospital has been put forward for two Nursing times awards including the Golden Service award.

Hospital bosses have also found that by using teams rather than a succession of individuals, cleaning patterns are more flexible. This in turn has reduced the incidence of wasted cleaning processes, such as cleaning a patient area just before a patient is due to be discharged as well as ensuring teams are on hand in case an emergency clean is required.

The story is a perfect example of the way in which those at the forefront of health provision are finding ways to work smarter rather than harder. For example many health providers are looking to make savings by replacing follow up appointments with telephone calls or using the phone to make routine check-ups on those with ongoing problems.

It has to be acknowledged that telephone coaching is not universally successful if used in isolation as a study by UK researchers revealed earlier in August. They concluded that telephone coaching of those with long term conditions is not effective unless it is carried out as part of an integrated system of care.

Health professionals too are using this “divide and conquer” principle to maximise patient treatment time and minimise disruptions. Simply by outsourcing their phone answering to a virtual assistant service, health professionals can ensure that their phones will be answered, appointments made and reminders sent out whilst the health professional can concentrate on treating their patients. With no need to interrupt a treatment to answer the phone and no missed calls, professionals such as osteopaths, chiropractors and others can provide a more streamlined and efficient service to their patients.

The Olympic legacy – one year on

On 21^st July sporting stars joined 15,000 runners to commemorate the anniversary of London 2012. With 2,500 adults and children racing round a family friendly 1.5 mile track, the remainder of the runners tackled a 5 mile course which wound around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The National Lottery anniversary run was started by Sir Chris Hoy whilst athletes such as Victoria Pendleton and Paula Radcliffe joined the mass runners cheered on by family and friends. Finishing on the Olympic athletics track itself every runner who completed the course created their own special memory to treasure and add to the host of positive memories of the Olympic and Paralympic games.

The run is not the only way in which the games are being remembered. As part of the legacy programme sports clubs across the UK have offered and continue to offer special taster days and extra coaching to tempt people to take up or return to sport. The ongoing success of these programmes can be seen with increased numbers of cyclists on our roads and a heightened level of competition enjoyed at many sporting events.

But the legacy is not just about competition and the true legacy can be seen in those who are enjoying sport as a means of keeping fit. Inevitably this results in an increase of sporting injuries as old joints and muscles are coaxed into working that little bit harder and those who once gaily set off on a run without any preparation discover the importance of stretching.

For physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths and other health practitioners the sporting revival therefore carries the potential for an increased caseload. But in order to benefit from this legacy potential, health practitioners may have to optimise their working time. One option available is for activities such as diary management, client notes management and appointment reminder calls to be outsourced to a virtual assistant service. With phones diverted and day to day practice management outsourced, health professionals can concentrate on maximising patient treatment times.

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is due to open its doors fully for business in the Spring of 2014. When it does it will offer many more opportunities to participate in sport. In the meantime there are lots of special events, taster sessions and trials taking place across the country for those whose appetite has been whetted for Rio 2016 and beyond or who just want to take up the challenge and get a little fitter.

I just called with a reminder

There are good calls and bad calls; calls you treasure, calls you feel are unwanted intrusions into your day and calls you will remember for the rest of your life. But from time to time a call arrives which is so useful that you are simply pleased to receive it.

We refer here to appointment reminders, those simple texts or automated calls which remind you that your doctor/dentist/hair or other appointment is due. They don’t take much but can play a huge part in ensuring that you do arrive at your appointment on time, thereby reducing the vast numbers of no-shows which daily cost health practitioners both time and money.

One recent convert to the benefits of automated reminders is the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. From the start of August, those with outpatient appointments will receive a communication a week before their appointment date, asking them to confirm, cancel or rearrange. The Trust hopes that this will make a dent in the 39,871 appointments which were missed in the last year.

In fact the trust has calculated that every no-show costs an average of £108 which means that the Trust spent over £4 million last year in dealing with those who failed to turn up for appointments, money which would have been better spent on providing treatment. In announcing the new service David Moss, deputy general manager for outpatients, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “By making sure all of our appointments are used, we can see more patients and patients will be seen sooner.”

But it is not just hospitals and NHS trusts which are affected by no-shows. All health practitioners are similarly affected and for those providing direct-pay services such as physiotherapy, a no-show not only means another patient could have been treated, it also equates to a direct loss of income.

Contacting patients to remind them of their appointments can also take time out from that available for treatments. One solution is to use a virtual assistant service to both make appointments and to send out reminders. With diary management online the health practitioner can quickly view their upcoming appointments but still be free to maximise patient time. Add in a patient notes service and even more time can be found for the practitioner to do what they do best, treating patients.

The Wimbledon effect

If you are toying with the theory that everything and everyone are connected in some way then the annual feast of tennis at Wimbledon may help to cement your belief. For no sooner has the first ball been struck on the hallowed Centre Court than gardens and roads across the country resound with the thunk of old tennis ball on broken racket.

For two weeks every year it almost seems as though every child is a tennis player. Whilst the professional players may be contesting for pride and £millions, never has a match been more keenly contested than that staged in the alleyway between the garden shed and the cabbages.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing the first few days of Wimbledon 2013 have been dogged with controversy about the state of the courts and the numbers of those who have withdrawn due to injury. No matter that a higher number of players withdrew at the same stage of the US Open two years before or that the first couple of days always sees a number of slips at Wimbledon as the grass beds in; the toll of injuries has lead to much comment both in the press and in the players’ lounge.

In truth it is impossible for any sports person to go through their life without picking up one injury or another. Writing for the BBC, Andy Murray acknowledged this saying:

“As athletes, you spend a lot of your time carrying injuries of one sort or another. I’d say there are three categories: about 20% of the time your body feels great and you feel nothing; quite a bit of the time you’ll have something that might be a bit sore, but it doesn’t affect your tennis at all; the rest of the time you can be carrying something that means you have to compensate and make adjustments to your game. Everyone has to deal with it.”

Whether professional sports person or not, when an injury strikes the quicker treatment starts the better. Physiotherapists, osteopaths and other health professionals know that early treatment not only promotes a swifter return to form it can also help to prevent the occurrence of further compensating injures. But maximising the availability of treatment times is not easy when time is also taken up in managing diaries and answering calls. Using a virtual assistant service can relieve the pressure and enable health professionals to concentrate on helping patients to return to form without compromising on service.

Workout at work day

Workout at work day 2013 has been hailed as a success with hundreds of events taking place across the UK. From exercise classes and yoga to simple walks in the fresh air, the businesses taking part have all stepped up to recognise the benefits which they can gain through encouraging employees to exercise.

Organised by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), the day was billed as an opportunity for businesses to work with employees to develop a healthy lifestyle. The CSP encouraged businesses to call in a local physiotherapist to show how simple changes in exercise or working patterns can make a huge difference to staff wellbeing and attendance levels.

According to the CSP, poor work habits such as sitting for long periods, not taking breaks and working late can all increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders and stress, depression or anxiety. This in turn can contribute to the millions of days lost every year due to employer-related ill health. Taking time out to encourage employees to work fitter can therefore make a huge difference to a business. In fact a report by The Work Foundation revealed that for every £1 spent on wellbeing initiatives, businesses gained £3 of benefits.

For physiotherapists too, this day brings the opportunity to make contact with businesses in their area. This brings multiple opportunities for closer working relationships including the possibility of arranging contracted physiotherapy and advice sessions for businesses. This type of service is already widely offered by other health-related practitioners such as chiropractors and is generally appreciated by employers and employees alike.

Of course this does raise the question of client contact when out of the office. There is no point in arranging a weekly session at a local business if this means other clients can’t make appointments. The solution is to use the services of a virtual assistant. When you can’t answer the phone the virtual assistant can step in, taking calls and messages and arranging appointments. This means that your business is never out of touch even if you are. Virtual assistants can also send out appointment reminders and organise patient records.

Workout at work day is a great reminder of the way in which health services can reach out and help people to achieve a better work/life balance. Using a virtual assistant service to help when out of contact also means that health practitioners themselves can balance their work, home and client needs.

Learning the lessons of 111

NHS England has reported that the 111 telephone service has successfully coped with the May Bank Holiday weekend without major problems. With providers taking on more call handlers in the run up to the weekend the early signs are that the 111 service responded to the vast majority of the 100,000 callers over the weekend.

However, chief nursing officer Jane Cummings acknowledged that improvements were still required before all forty-six 111 services were up and running as expected. Run by a mix of providers including private firms and ambulance services, the 111 service has seen some teething problems. This has resulted in some services being suspended or receiving special help.

Last week NHS England agreed to commission an external review to look at the problems which have beset the introduction of the 111 telephone service; both as a guide to actions required to bring the service up to full strength and as a learning point for future projects. Whilst some areas of the country seem to have experienced a fairly smooth transition, others have been beset with problems including calls not being answered and major delays experienced by those waiting for calls back from medical specialists.

Designed to serve the needs of those who are too ill to be able to wait until they can see their doctor within hours but are uncertain if they should call an ambulance the 111 service is designed to be able to direct callers to the most appropriate service for their needs including GP out of hours, A&E or calling an ambulance if required. This means that the service may receive a wide variety of calls from those who are concerned about their own, or a loved one’s, health and in those circumstances any delay in responding can lead to distress and anxiety.

In fact it’s not just the 111 service which can suffer from delayed call answering. Any call which goes unanswered can potentially lead to frustration on the part of the caller, whether the call is to a health practitioner or not. For those health practitioners who work closely with patients this can cause a dilemma. If the answer a call they may be interrupting an existing treatment but if they ignore the call they risk losing a potential patient or their goodwill.

The solution is to appoint a virtual assistant service which will respond to callers, book appointments, manage diaries and take messages. Appointing a virtual assistant service which specialises in health matters will also pay dividends as the call answerers will be able to talk knowledgeably to patients about their treatments with empathy and attention to detail and will better understand when messages should be marked as urgent. We will be keeping an eye on the NHS England review as well as the progress of the 111 service and will report on any findings which may be of interest to our health practitioner clients.

Guarding your back

In celebration of Chiropractic Awareness Week 2013 the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) has been encouraging parents to take care of their backs. According to the BCA, 79% of people have experienced back or neck pain at some point in their lives with 61% of those being parents.

More worrying for the parent/child relationship, 55% of parents reported that their back or neck pain prevented them from lifting or carrying their child. To help parents to prevent or minimise the effects of back pain the BCA has published some handy advice sheets on their website. The guides cover areas such as posture, stretching exercises, pregnancy, outdoor and indoor activities and play.

As you’d expect the BCA was not alone in promoting the Chiropractic Awareness Week which started on 15^th April. Chiropractors across the UK played their part in promoting the ways in which chiropractic treatments could help to treat or prevent back pain. With NHS commissioning for chiropractic treatments being limited, the majority of chiropractic patients tend to pay privately. This puts an added time pressure on chiropractors who not only have to provide the treatments but also manage their own administration as they care for multiple patients.

Making use of an efficient virtual service can take a lot of the pressure out of the administration burden and enable chiropractors to maximise their time with patients. Services such as telephone answering and diary management help the practice to present a professional image whilst minimising the time spent on administration or having to interrupt treatments to answer the phone. But it is the additional services offered by businesses such as Clinic Appointments which can also make a major difference to time management. SMS appointment reminders have been shown to boost patient attendance whilst digitising patient notes eliminates the time spent in searching through filing cabinets as the patient sits in the waiting room.

One of the BCA leaflets provides handy hints on protecting our backs when on the computer. For busy chiropractors and other health professionals we’d like to add one more item to the list and that is to reduce the time spent sitting down on the phone or computer and let our virtual assistants take the strain.

Harnessing the power of technology

Speaking at the Healthcare Innovation Expo 2013*, the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, outlined the way in which innovation is to be used to drive the NHS into a future where it is “freed from the shackles of top-down bureaucracy.” Giving the online seat booking innovation which transformed the air industry as an example Mr Hunt bluntly stated that “while they innovated, we stagnated.”

In a speech which touched on the Francis Report, culture and values as well as regulation and systems Mr Hunt highlighted the care and compassion which is at the heart of our health services. He also called for patients to be put in the health driving seat.

One of the key practices which the Health Secretary believes needs to be implemented to transform the health service is the move to electronic patient records. Giving examples of ways in which patient care can be improved by the use of electronic records, Mr Hunt said that a paperless NHS will have “massive implications for improved patient safety, genuine patient empowerment and self-management as well as scientific research.”

Of course it is not just the NHS which will benefit from electronic records. Health practitioners both within and outside the NHS can find that electronic records will make a sizeable difference to their working patterns. For example, the Clinic Appointments patient records service is already helping practitioners to streamline their operations.

With patient notes, documentation and X-Rays all available at the touch of a button the health practitioner no longer has to spend time in filing or searching for records. This means more time spent on patient care and less chance of errors creeping in if important documents are mis-filed. Combined with the Clinic Appointments’ virtual receptionist and diary management services the secure patient records service helps every health practitioner from a sole practice to a multi-unit facility to provide a streamlined and efficient service.

Health services in the UK are going places and those who are at the forefront of innovation and streamlined technology will be best placed to make the most of the new vision. Putting patients first, innovating, bringing fresh thinking to health care; all these are on the Government’s radar. The Health Secretary closed his talk, as we do this article, with this quote from Bill Gates “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.”

*http://mediacentre.dh.gov.uk/2013/03/13/13-march-2013-jeremy-hunt-innovation/

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