health appointments Archives - Page 2 of 6

The Rise in Health Literacy

Once upon a time the pronouncements of health professionals were treated as absolute. We attended their clinics and surgeries, described our symptoms and took whatever treatment was prescribed. Whilst in some ways unquestioning faith may have been easier for the health practitioners, it also meant that the level of health knowledge within the general population was fairly poor.

The result of this was that many diseases went undiagnosed until it was too late and ‘old wives tales’ were as likely as not to determine health levels in some districts. What was needed was a good dose of education; a way of helping the general population to be better informed about health issues.

Fast forward to the internet generation and we are all far more likely to be health aware. We can look up symptoms, check healthy diets and delve into treatment options for illnesses. In fact the only challenge facing us nowadays is to distinguish between the reputable sites and those which rely rather more on rumour and gossip than is good for us. Oh yes and having the strength of mind to work through the list of diseases associated with symptoms and be realistic rather than just plumping for the one at the top of the page or which looks most alarming. But in general being more aware of the course of illness and disease helps us to work with health professionals in designing a treatment plan which is appropriate for us.

And surfing our symptoms is not confined to the young. The rise of the silver surfer has resulted in the elderly also being more aware of what treatments are better for them. So much so that a recent BBC report revealed that regular internet use in older people was associated with good health literacy. In other words, the more familiar we are with surfing the more likely we are to research symptoms, ask for help in a timely manner, and engage with treatment.

But our increasing familiarity with the internet and associated technologies also has other benefits for health practitioners. Those who are used to surfing the web are more likely to accept time saving options such as online booking allied with pre-payment by card. This not only saves health practitioners time, it also is more likely to result in patients who show up for treatments. Additional reassurance can be gained by adding a SMS text reminder to the online booking system, prompting patients to attend appointments or to cancel in time for the slot to be refilled.

Linking in a pre-payment by card module to the booking system also enables practices to easily take a cancellation fee in the event of no-shows, bringing the added benefit of smoothing out cash flow. There are those who say that the ability to look up symptoms online can result in a generation of hypochondriacs but there have always been those who take their symptoms too seriously. What internet surfing does do is help practitioners and patients to work together to create the optimum solution and that can only be good for the health of the nation.

Telling your story once

The NHS in England has announced further initiatives in its drive towards streamlining patient records. The National Innovation Board established by the Department of Health has set out bold new plans to move information off the page and onto the web by 2020.

The plans include a commitment to give everyone access to digital GP records by 2015 with other patient records including those kept at hospitals and clinics being online by 2018. The ‘Red Book’ which records details of a child’s developmental progress and vaccinations is expected to be replaced by a digital version by 2016, thereby enabling parents to view their children’s records at the touch of a button.

Commenting on the announcement Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt said “I want the NHS to be a world class showcase of what innovation can achieve” whilst Tim Kelsey, NHS National Informatics Director, said “We must embrace modern technology to help us lead healthier lives, and if we want – to take more control when are ill.” To this end the NHS is also planning to ‘kite mark’ certain apps which will help patients to access services and take more control of their own health.

Digitising patient records not only helps patients to take control of their own health, it also has major implications for health practitioners. Firstly, health practitioners will be able to quickly access a full patient history without having to wait around whilst records are located and physically transferred between departments or treatment centres. To a health system which is currently geared towards paper records this will have benefits both for speed of access and speed of treatment.

Equally importantly, with records to hand patients won’t have to go through their story over and over again; perhaps missing out vital elements in the telling. As a result there should be a better understanding of patient history, thereby leading to an improvement in treatment regimes and in outcomes. This is particularly important when it comes to areas such as physiotherapy where early treatment can make a measurable difference in a swift return to mobility.

From a pure practitioner perspective the digitising of patient records also helps to reduce unnecessary administration time. Time taken in filing records, in retrieving records and in waiting for records to be walked or posted from one treatment centre to another is time which could be better spent on actually treating patients. ‘Waiting for the records’ is a mantra which bedevils healthcare across both the NHS and private practice and it can lead to delays in treatment which would be better avoided. The ability to sit with a patient and to see their history at the touch of a button will make a measurable difference to long term health care.

The announcement of these initiatives comments that “technology will play a vital role in helping contribute to the £22 billion in efficiency savings needed to sustain the NHS.” Whilst there is no doubt that these savings are welcome, the deployment of technology is not just about cost savings. Rather it is about improving patient lives and that is an ambition which we can all applaud.

Seasonal Flu

Autumn may have started with a blaze of sunshine but hopes of lingering summer weather have now been well and truly dashed by the arrival of storms and heavy rain. It’s a stark reminder of the longer nights, dwindling temperatures and gradual descent into frost and slush that we will have to endure before summer once again peeps over the horizon.

The arrival of Autumn also heralds the start of this year’s flu jab campaign. According to Public Health England, only 52% of those with an underlying illness took up the free jab offer last year (2013) and PHE are keen to increase that percentage as much as possible this winter.

So the call has gone out for young children, the elderly and those with underlying conditions to take up the challenge and get protected. Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer said “I would urge those who are offered the free flu vaccination to visit their GP early in the flu season. I also urge all health care workers to make sure they are vaccinated to protect themselves, their patients and their families.”

When we think of the flu jab we naturally tend to think of it in terms of prevention of the flu itself but there are a number of other consequences of flu which put a strain on our health services. One of the more common of these is the need for some form of osteopath or chiropractic treatment as muscles or ligaments become strained thanks to the effects of coughing. When we cough or sneeze we put a tremendous percussive force on our bodies and this can lead to back and other injuries.

The effect of this is that not only do health practitioners need to stay healthy themselves to continue to treat their normal patients, they also have extra calls on their time to treat these flu-related injuries. And really these couldn’t come at a worse time. One good bout of overnight frost and icy pavements add to slips and falls whilst icy roads lead to crashes. These too put a strain on our health services with physiotherapists and other health practitioners having to cope with the aftermath of broken bones and strains.

Of course, if we all took up the flu-jab challenge then our health service would be far better off but as that is an ‘ideal world’ scenario it means that once again our health services may be stretched this winter. Anything which can help to mitigate that pressure is therefore welcome and that is why numbers of health practices are adopting ways of working which will reduce the strain on their own resources. Areas such as electronic filing of records, appointment reminders and the use of virtual assistant services to answer calls and book appointments can all help to smooth out administration time and therefore add to the time available for treatment.

As Public Health England says “Each winter hundreds of thousands of people see their GP and tens of thousands are hospitalised because of flu.” That puts a huge strain on resources so it’s no wonder that they are campaigning for as many people as possible to be vaccinated this year.

Prescribing Physiotherapy

New laws in Wales have opened up the way for physiotherapists, chiropodists and podiatrists to be able to prescribe medication to their patients. The change will bring Wales into line with England and Scotland which brought similar regulations into play in August 2013 and May 2014 respectively. The ability to prescribe medication is an important facet of physiotherapy and allied health services.

For a start, with physiotherapists and others prescribing medication as required, treatment pathways can be smoothed out with patients no longer having to wait for doctors to prescribe before they can continue a course of treatment. Not only that, by integrating physiotherapy into the treatment/prescription mix, health professionals are able to deliver a more holistic treatment plan. As a consequence, this practice speeds up recovery time whilst simultaneously reducing the burden on the rest of the NHS

Speaking about the new laws the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists said “We have noticed that the new powers have made a particularly strong impact in both neurological rehabilitation and in the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions, such as back and neck pain” whilst Welsh Health Minister Mark Drakeford said patients would get “a faster, more effective service with quicker access to the medications they need.”

Subject to training, other health professionals such as pharmacists and optometrists already have the power to prescribe. Moves such as these have the potential to have a profound effect on standards of patient care as well as making a more efficient use of health service resources. With increasingly busy lives and increasingly long lives, these resources are going to be stretched more and more unless further measures are taken to enable health professionals to optimise patient care. In fact, recent statistics have revealed that the number of those reaching the 100 mark has soared in the last decade, with (in 2013) nearly 14,000 people in the UK alone having passed that milestone with 710 living beyond 105.

Putting additional powers in the hands of those who need them is one way of helping our health services. So too is any move which enables specialists to concentrate on clinical time rather than on administration time. After all, if we are giving physiotherapists and other health professionals the tools which enable them to deliver a more holistic and complete level of treatment then the least we can do is ensure that their patient-facing time is optimised.

That’s where making the best use of technology comes into play. Measures such as on-line appointment books which patients or virtual receptionists can access remotely, electronic filing of patient records, or the ability to switch routine calls to a virtual receptionist service are all designed to free health professionals from routine administration tasks. Not only does this give those working in physiotherapy practices and other health services more time to practice the skills which they were trained for, they are also more able to take on additional clinical duties such as prescribing.

Working smarter not harder may seem like a cliché but it is one which can have a profound effect on patient recovery times and on the ability of health professionals to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

Staying active, boosting health

The adage that sitting at a desk for hours on end can be counter-productive has been given a further boost by a study carried out in America. It has long been claimed that being active, even simply by taking a break and walking around can help to reduce incidents of a range of health problems including diabetes and some forms of cancer.

This fresh study looked at the effects that sitting for long periods had on the femoral artery. The study observed that the way in which the femoral artery widened in response to blood flow deteriorated through long periods of sitting but that light walking breaks every hour significantly improved recovery of the artery.

This study, although limited in size, adds further weight to the argument for regular amounts of light exercise as opposed to sitting still all day and then hitting the gym. Whether the ‘standing desks’ which are growing in popularity are the answer is a debate for another time but from an employer, as well as a health practitioner point of view, the growing body of evidence would suggest that a sedentary work and home lifestyle is not a sensible course of action.

Of course, for the majority of health practitioners the opposite is true. The NHS Choices 10,000 steps a day challenge is scarcely a problem when someone is on their feet providing physiotherapy, osteopathy or other health treatments to patients. For them finding five minutes to sit down is the challenge and generally those five minutes are taken up in a rush to complete paperwork before the next patient knocks at the door.

If a sedentary lifestyle is not good for health, neither is one which is so packed with tasks that there is no time to rest. There is being active and being Active and if all of our activity is packed into continuous rushing around in response to must do tasks then being active can be counter productive. We all need time just to ‘stop and stare’, to rest our minds and bodies, to shake off what has gone before and prepare ourselves for the next activity. If we don’t give ourselves time then, rather like a student kitchen, the dirty cups of life pile up until it is difficult to see any clear way forward.

And when health practitioners naturally priorities patient treatment time, it is almost inevitable that administration creeps into leisure time. Taking simple steps to reduce the administrative burden can make a difference to stress levels. Tasks such as electronic filing of patient notes or sending out appointment reminders can easily be devolved to a virtual assistant service, as can dealing with routine phone calls and diary management.

Utilising the services of a virtual assistant not only removes the routine leaving the health practitioner free to concentrate on patient treatments, it also reduces the stress levels which can rise when a day is overfilled. Perhaps health practitioners need not worry about whether they are benefiting from regular exercise but in the interests of a balanced lifestyle, they also need some time to ‘sit and stare’.

Everything in moderation

Saturated fats, salt, alcohol, exercise, diet; the list of potential causes and prevention methods for cancer, heart problems and other life-threatening conditions changes on a daily basis. For every report which boldly proclaims that x is bad for you, another is sure to follow with a counter argument.

Even the idea of healthy exercise is under threat as a recent report reveals that working out at the gym may not help us to lose weight. With all of this contradictory advice it’s hardly surprising that some choose to ignore it completely whilst others present themselves at the osteopath or chiropractor with injuries from having jumped from one fad into another.

Calmer minds accept that the solution is to adopt the mantra ‘everything in moderation.’ Ignoring the fads and balancing a healthy diet with moderate exercise is arguably the best advice which anyone can have. Similarly, when it comes to a busy lifestyle, rather than flying from one extreme solution to another, the best advice is to take a good look at the schedule and find ways to reduce the overall workload.

When we encounter overload in our daily lives it is tempting to cut out some elements entirely. For example, a busy physiotherapy practice may take the decision to stop taking on new patients. Of course the danger in this is that we lurch from one crisis to another, cresting more problems with every ‘solution’ until we fall into some kind of stasis: just about managing but unable to grow or enjoy our work.

But one of the benefits of the internet age is that there are other options available which can take the strain without needing to resort to drastic measures. Services such as diary management, phone answering and even electronic filing of patient records can all be handled by a virtual assistant service. And with today’s telephony systems enabling callers to be pre-announced, a virtual assistant service can answer calls in the name of the health practice even if they are looking after a number of practices at the same time.

Add in an on-line booking service allied to secure card processing and at a stroke the day to day administration workload of a busy health practice can be switched from overload to manageable. Not only that, by taking card details at the time of booking, clients are far more likely to attend appointments; helping to maximise treatment times and ensuring that the physiotherapist or other health practitioner is spending their time productively rather than chasing no-shows.

With administration time cut, the health practitioner is freer to concentrate on what they do best; helping those who are in need of some form of therapeutic intervention. Best of all, the virtual assistant service is flexible and can be switched on and off as required. So if ‘pinch points’ only occur at certain times of the day, week or month, the virtual assistant can step in then, leaving practices free to self-manage at other times.

Everything in moderation? With a virtual receptionist service on standby, health practices can smooth out some of life’s pressure points and that can only be good for the health practitioners and for their patients.

Streamlining payments

The days of making manual payments are numbered if a report by Juniper Research is anything to go by. According to the report’s press release the number of household bill payments made via PC, mobile or tablet is expected to top 20 billion this year (2014) with the UK having 16% of the global market.

Driven by Generation Y users, the growing acceptance of mobile payments is only expected to expand further as fears over security are lessened and additional mobile devices come onto the marketplace. Interestingly, when it comes to larger payments, users still seem to prefer the security of a larger screen with PCs and tablets leading the way.

Whilst this report concentrated on household bills, the acceptance of online payments generally is also on the increase. Shopping or booking events or holidays via the internet is also on the up and this means that consumers are far more accepting of the idea of providing credit card details whilst online. And the more accepting we become, the more that online payments becomes part of the mainstream.

That creates tremendous opportunities for health professionals who are looking to streamline administration and payments. With a ready acceptance in providing card details; when someone makes an appointment to see a physiotherapist or other health professional the next logical step is for them to confirm the appointment by providing payment card details.

Having an appointment confirmed in this way has two benefits for the health professional. Firstly, the act of providing card details tends to fix the appointment in the patient’s eyes, making it far more likely that they will turn up for their treatment. This not only helps to ensure a full treatment schedule it also makes it more likely that the patient will receive a full course of treatment at the time when it is most needed. Secondly, with card details to hand, it is simple for the health practice to process payments, either in full once the patient has attended or to take a payment on the card in line with the practice’s stated cancellation policy.

Payment card details can be taken at the time of booking an appointment either online or via the telephone. At that stage the payment amount is simply pre-authorised which means that the payment amount is ‘reserved’ against the card. Once the appointment has taken place, should the patient choose to pay by other means the reservation can simply be cancelled.Otherwise the payment is taken at the time of the appointment; speeding up receipt of funds and saving the invoice/cheque/bank clearance cycle.

With time at a premium, anything which helps to reduce administration and speed up payments is a winner in today’s health practice. Pre-authorisation of cards means no delay in payment collection and no need to spend precious time in sending out and chasing bills on a regular basis. And with pre-authorising reducing no-shows and therefore increasing the likelihood of patients receiving the treatment they need when they need it, pre-authorising is a win-win solution for patient and health practitioner alike.

Medal-Winning Physiotherapy

The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games got off to a flying start with a flurry of medals on day one for the host nation. But whilst all eyes are on the athletes themselves as they strive for victory, it can be easy to forget those who work hard behind the scenes to make the Games a success.

From cleaners to ticket collectors and from chefs to medical staff, those who volunteer or work at the games are on the front line when it comes to building Glasgow’s reputation. For these games the medical team is headed by physiotherapist Liz Mendl. Liz is in charge of some 1,400 volunteers including 400 physiotherapists.

Building on her experience of previous Commonwealth and Olympic events, Liz has introduced two innovations for these games. The first is to head up each medical room with a ‘lead physiotherapist’ who is responsible for running the room and ensuring that those in need of help swiftly receive the appropriate treatment from the right member of the multidisciplinary team. The second innovation is to instil ‘first contact’ physios at training venues to provide instant help for those who don’t have access to a team physio.

On their website the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) highlights some of the many physiotherapists who have volunteered to help at the games. Browsing through the summaries provided by the volunteers it is hard not to get an overwhelming feeling of the dedication and commitment which physiotherapists give on a daily basis. Volunteer Emma Knott comments that “there is much more to physiotherapy than the magic sponge!” perhaps summing up best the challenge faced by the profession in helping people to truly understand the role which physiotherapists can play in keeping people fit and healthy. Yes, some may be called upon to deliver remedial treatment following one-off injuries; but physiotherapists also work with people in order to mitigate life-limiting conditions or even to help individuals to stay supple, preventing injuries from occurring in the first instance.

Measures, such as those introduced by Liz at the games, can only help to improve the public perception of the role of physiotherapy within the health profession. But this in turn may bring fresh challenges to the profession. Once physiotherapists are seen as front-line first-contact health professionals rather than ‘when everything else has been tried’ last resorts the profession is going to become even busier. When time is at a premium the last thing that should be affected is patient treatment. After all, when you have spend years training to bring your skills to benefit others, the last thing you want to do is to see valuable time spent on routine administration. Time saving measures such as online booking, diary management, electronic patient records and appointment reminders can all help to reduce time spent on administration, thereby maximising patient treatment times.

If the remainder of the games match up to the excitement on Day 1, then we are in for a feast of sport. Let’s hope that the medical team aren’t kept too busy and can enjoy some of the events which they have given up their time to support.

Holiday Blues

Once upon a time we just went on holiday and everything we did when we were away was part of the holiday experience. Nowadays it seems as though spontaneity is out the window as we have to have a clear idea before we go and our every intention is scrutinised in detail by those responsible for booking and insuring the trip.

Completing a holiday insurance form recently, a colleague was struck by the number of exclusions and ‘do you intend to..’ questions. They felt that having to think up and list activities in advance killed the joy and anticipation of being able to relax and just ‘go with the flow.’

Admittedly activities such as base jumping and volcano boarding are not in the usual run of chill-out holiday activities. But an activity such as ‘walking on a mountainside for more than an hour’ is hardly a dangerous pursuit, particularly if you are visiting areas of Switzerland or Austria where it is hard to avoid strolling on gentle slopes.

Of course, the insurance strictures do have a basis in fact as some activities are more likely to result in injury than others, particularly when combined with a relaxing glass of your favourite holiday tipple. In fact, statistics from the FCO last year revealed that of the 19,000 people who asked for help whilst abroad, just over 3,500 had been hospitalised. But whether or not hospital treatment is required there are still a fair number of people who do need further help when they return to this country. From broken limbs to strains and misaligned joints; the chances are that those working as chiropractors, physiotherapists and osteopaths are likely to be called upon this summer to treat those holiday injuries.

When the call comes, it is good to be able to respond at once; but this is not always possible, particularly if answering the call means pausing an existing treatment session. That’s where a virtual assistant service comes in handy. Calls can be switched seamlessly to the service with callers being greeted as if from the health practice itself.

Not only does this mean that your potential clients receive a swift and positive response right from the start, it also helps to ensure that your appointment book is kept as fully up-to-date as possible. And of course, if you don’t have to interrupt a treatment session in order to answer the phone, using a virtual assistant service also enables you to provide a first class service to those who attend treatment sessions.

Additional benefits of using a virtual assistant service include the ability to take card details at the time of booking, thus helping to smooth out cash flow and reducing on administration time. Pre-authorised card payment also enable health practices to take a no-show fee in accordance with their published criteria, should a patient fail to attend an appointment. Add in an appointment reminder service, and the chances of missed appointments are considerably reduced.

With appointment booking and card deposits taken care of the health practice can concentrate on what it does best, treating those in need. If your clients are going away this summer, encourage them to think carefully about how they answer the holiday insurance questionnaire. But if the worst comes to pass at least, thanks to some virtual assistance, you may well have time to treat them on their return.

The cost of health

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to charge patients for NHS appointments. Had the proposal been successful it would have led to the RCN backing the idea of a £10 charge for health appointments, but in the end 91% of delegates at the RCN conference voted against.

Those in favour of the proposal said that making a charge would not only raise much needed revenue for the NHS it would also emphasis the value of NHS appointments. In other words, charging for appointments would help people to appreciate the value and cost of NHS appointments and in the process make people think a little more about the way in which they use NHS resources This would in turn, the proponents argued, result in the twin benefits of reducing unnecessary appointments and reducing no-shows; both of which waste considerable NHS resources as well as potentially delaying urgent treatments. After all, it helps no-one if health practitioners are sitting idly by waiting in vain for someone to turn up. That time would far better be used in helping another patient.

Commenting on the vote a spokesperson for the Department of Health said “We are absolutely clear that the NHS should be free at the point of use, and we will not charge for GP appointments.” But with no-shows a constant drain on both NHS and private health care services, practices are increasingly turning towards the use of appointment reminders as a means of encouraging people to attend booked appointments or to cancel them in good time.

Sent by phone, SMS text or e-mail, appointment reminders not only jog patients’ memories, they also act as a spur for patients to get in touch and cancel appointments if they are unable to attend. This in turn enables health practices to re-book appointment slots.

For health practices such as osteopaths or physiotherapists which do charge for appointments, not only do no-shows waste valuable treatment time, they also act as a cost drain on the practice. Whilst the option of sending out appointment reminders is one option, another great way to cut down on no-shows is to take a secure card pre-authorisation at the time the appointment is booked. Having a card pre-authorised tends to sharpen the mind when it comes to remembering to attend appointments. Pre-authorising a card doesn’t prevent the patient from paying by other means when they attend the appointment but should the patient not attend the health practice can charge a pre-agreed sum to the card. Pre-authorised card booking can be taken either over the phone or when an appointment is booked online.

With a report from the BBC revealing that the NHS may be facing a funding gap of some £2billion in the next year, we suspect that the debate about the way in which health care is funded and managed will rumble on for some time. Adopting systems such as appointment reminders which help to ensure patient care is delivered when it is required whilst at the same time maximising resources can only be a positive move.

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