Redmoor Health was commissioned by North Central London to support key areas for digital improvement. PHGH Doctors is a GP surgery in the capital, located at Temple Fortune Health Centre, Golders Green.
PHGH Doctors
North Central London Digital Champions better using digital tools to improve their workload and manage their time effectively.
Aims and Objectives
The aim of this programme was to support PHGH Doctors to make better use of digital tools available via training sessions to:
- Improve the quality and uptake of online services
- Strengthen relationships between GP and Primary Care Network (PCN) services
- Provide digital solutions for more appropriate signposting of patients to manage demand
- Increase confidence to provide access to health records online
- Support PHGH through quality improvement
The Challenges
A key challenge for the practice was the volume of their workload and managing this effectively with the team they had in place. It was therefore essential to understand how best we could support them from the offset. We prioritised looking at things that would free up their time, such as increasing the number of patients using GP online access to order prescriptions and using social media to promote health messages. These interventions would direct traffic away from the practice telephone lines and ultimately free up reception and administrative capacity.
Inputs
- 1:1 discussion with two of the GPs to understand the main issues
- Workshops arranged with wider practice team – including reception/admin/clinical staff
- Use of the Digital Maturity Index (DMI), specifically analysing the website and the uptake of GP online services for booking appointments, ordering prescriptions, and patient record access to view test results (all things that would free up frontline staff by reducing calls/queries)
- Social Media Managed Service (see further information below)
- Access to a support desk, Monday-Friday between 8am-4pm via phone and email
Outcomes
Homework
The reception team were asked to complete a week-long telephone audit to identify common request themes. They were also asked to either register themselves for the NHS App or to try using a test patient to see what the app is like to use from a patient perspective. We also recommended attendance at a Redmoor Health workshop ‘Online access to records’.
Session 1
The session was held with the frontline staff, inclusive of the reception team, reception manager, and admin staff. The purpose of this session was to:
- Review the findings from the audit
- Create an action plan
- Review the communications to patients – e.g. ordering medication online, phone calls for urgent same-day problems
Session 2
The second session was to review the progress from the first session and to look at embedding positive communications and care navigation information. Discussions around positive communications have helped improve workflows and non-clinical triage. Guidance was offered around signposting to the most appropriate clinician for the presenting problem, such as a pharmacist or nurse rather than thinking “GP first”.
Other Support
The practice has also been able to take advantage of Redmoor Health’s Social Media Managed Service which creates and manages social media pages as well as posting relevant content to local communities using a mixture of national campaigns and bespoke posts.
Impact
Improvements to the website and new social media pages helped to generate ideas around how to help reception staff in their role and promote non-clinical triage.
The DMI is a tool used in NCL for establishing the current level of practice’s digital capability. It uses over 14 categories of different digital metrics, to provide a factual report on the level of digital maturity of any practice or PCN in a given area.
DMI Scores
Website audit Score improvement
+11%
August – December 2021
Digital Maturity Index Score improvement
4.6%
August – December 2021
Since August 2021 PHGH Doctors have seen a major improvement in their digital maturity index score, particularly with regards to their website, which has been well optimised for patients.
Key Learning
Whole team approach
Taking a whole team approach to tackling issues, can be extremely helpful in working towards areas of improvement. The process needs to be ongoing and will take time.
Aknowledgements
Dr Karen Grossmark, Dr Leora Harverd and Lesley Massey (Practice Administrator) have all worked with Redmoor through this process of this and have executed all suggested improvements.
”“Redmoor has helped us to help our staff and patients. They have given us the direction and impetus to support and implement our social media platform and encouraged us to update and fine-tune our website. This has already made an impact on the number of calls being made to the practice and encouraged patients to use online access for their medication and record access. Before Redmoor came on board we were struggling to know how to implement these vital tools. Thank you Redmoor.”
Dr Karen GrossmarkPHGH Doctors
Whether it is by training and helping you use and embed technology, showcasing the great work you are doing, or helping you learn from experiences we have been part of elsewhere. Contact us to see how we can transform your digital practice.
