HEALTHCARE someone can move onto the next patient . If you ’ ve been referred to us , you may be very ill , so the patient care advisors have to know how to speak to potentially anxious individuals to put them at their ease and organise their appointment with minimum anxiety .”
The Patient Referral Centre exists to ease patients through their journey . The new system facilitates this by incorporating all required clinical information on the screen and taking the patient care advisor through the necessary workflow . This enhanced technology extends beyond arrangement of appointments . “ Flexibility is the key to what we ’ re trying to do ,” O ’ Brien explains . “ Where possible , we use a system generated email rather than post . We also send reminder texts , and we offer a patient portal , which allows patients to make changes to their own appointment online . This isn ’ t instead of using the telephone – it ’ s as well as . A lot of the patients we communicate with are quite elderly and may not be as tech savvy as others , but we are seeing a demographic shift with the number of older people using computers increasing all the time .”
The wider network
The other advantage of the portal is that it works as an alternative for patients with hearing difficulties . According to O ’ Brien , a frequent issue for patients contacting the centre is the need for new hearing aid batteries , and the portal allows them to order new ones easily . While the patient is the focus for InHealth , it also wants to make everything easier for both the commissioners , who pay for the treatment , and for GPs . O ’ Brien and his team offer a commissioner portal to automate information flow between them and InHealth , ensuring that all information regarding the patient and their treatment is readily available .
“ Maintaining a connection to the GPs is attractive to their community ,” O ’ Brien continues . “ While they may not ask for a service that specifically makes things easier for them , that ’ s what our system does . We use the Docman service which allows GPs to organise their files electronically . GPs are overworked , and this is just one
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