West Common Lane Teaching Practice

Using the Digital Journey Planner to enhance a GP practice's digital journey.

Introduction

The Digital Journey Planner (DJP), created by Redmoor Health in partnership with NHS England, is an innovative online self-assessment tool designed to enhance the knowledge, comprehension, and processes of GP practices with the objective of advancing practice digital maturity.

The DJPs first module, patient communications, has been commissioned by NHS England and is available to all practice teams throughout the country at no cost.

West Common Lane Teaching Practice was first opened in July 1991. The practice currently provides services to a patient population in excess of 8000 which is still growing to date.

The Challenges

Whilst actioning one of the improvement areas highlighted by the DJP, West Common Lane Teaching Practice realises they were unable to claim their business on Google. Unfortunately, despite contacting Google Customer Support, the practice was unable to claim the business. Another challenge faced by the practice was finding the time around day-to-day practice operations to complete the DJP to an adequate standard.

The Solution

West Common Lane Teaching practice contacted Redmoor Health who were able to support the practice and quickly managed to resolve the issue with Google, allowing the practice to claim the business and further progress with the DJP.

Outputs

The practice tried to complete the DJP as independently as possible, with an offer of support from N3i team available as required. The practice and N3i teams met on an ad-hoc basis to discuss the DJP and any stumbling blocks or further questions.

Outcomes

Thanks to the DJP, the practice has been able to better harness the communicative power of its website. West Common Lane Teaching Practice added new features to the website, that were suggested by the DJP, most notably an FAQ section.

The practice approached this by following the instructions recommended by the DJP, obtaining common questions from front-of-house staff, collating them and then adding them with answers to the website. This has enabled them to provide more information digitally to their patients and associated healthcare professionals.

The practice updates its FAQs on an ad hoc basis if new trends in patient questions become apparent. Testimonials from the practice reception team indicate that fewer of the questions covered in the FAQ are coming through the phoneline reducing some of the burden placed on front-of-house staff.

Impact

The DJP has improved the standard of the practice’s website. It has also enhanced staff awareness of the information that is available to patients on the website.

As a practice, we discovered that we were lacking behind with regards to some of the working processes. They were not ‘modern’, nor up to the current digital standard. In some areas, we were working on par with what the DJP would expect, but it helped plug the gap where it was not.
Lauren Grundy at N3i has offered help at every step of the way, we would like to convey our thanks to her.

Billy Wright and Jorgia SmithAdmin & Reception staff at West Common Lane Teaching Practice

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