Spotlight September 2011

S P O T L I G H T S E P T 2011

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PEOPLE IN PRACTICE

UNCROSSING WIRES

One GP practice uses all the technology it can to help its patients

UNIQUE SELLING POINT What’s so great about your practice?

TEN THINGS YOUR SURGERY NEEDS NOW! From iPads to better software BROUG H T T O Y O U B Y

PRACTICEBUSINESS

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Contents › Sector

NEWS The top updates and innovations for 21st century GP practices

› People in practice

EDITOR’S LETTER

AHEAD OF ITS TIME The Meanwood Group Practice uses technology to keep up to speed

› Management

HEALTH ON THE MOVE The benefits of telehealth explored UNIQUE SELLING POINT What’s so great about your practice?

› Work/life

TOP 10 TIPS Ten things your surgery needs now!

EDITOR julia dennison julia.dennison@intelligentmedia.co.uk REPORTER Jonathan Hills jonathan.hills@intelligentmedia.co.uk ACCOUNT MANAGER george petrou george.petrou@intelligentmedia.co.uk PUBLISHER david collingbourne david.collingbourne@intelligentmedia.co.uk DESIGNER sarah chivers sarah.chivers@intelligentmedia.co.uk PRODUCTION ASSISTANT natalia johnston natalia.johnston@intelligentmedia.co.uk

CONTACT US intelligent media solutions suite 223, business design centre 52 upper street, london, N1 0QH | tel: 020 7288 6833 | fax: 020 7288 6834 | email: info@intelligentmedia.co.uk | web: www.practicebusiness.co.uk | web: www.intelligentmedia.co.uk | twitter: twitter.com/practice_biz

The way a GP practice is run in this day and age is, in many ways, significantly different to the way one was run two decades ago – thanks mostly to innovations in health-related technology.

In this supplement, we explore just what it is that goes into running a GP practice fit for the 21st century, from IT innovations to software that will help you work more efficiently.

With the onset of GP-led commissioning, it is becoming increasingly clear that patients will have to sit at the very heart of every decision made about the NHS, and to do that, patient data and record accessibility will be essential.

While it’s important to keep abreast of modern amenities like electronic appointment reminders, touch-screen check-in systems, repeat prescription ordering facilities on practice websites and medical records at the swipe of an iPad screen, it’s also important to remember (as practice manager Shelli Fineberg does on page six) that these should never replace a doctor’s relationship with their patient. Face-to-face interactions are still important, no matter how many whizzy gadgets and speedy software lets a GP practice run at full speed. If a practice gets that right, everything else is bound to fall into place.

We are always looking to hear from readers about their experiences with technology and modern innovations at their GP practice. If you’re interested in speaking to us about a story or getting your practice featured in a future issue, please get in touch on editor@practicebusiness.co.uk.

Enjoy.

EDITOR

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DEMAND IS HIGH FOR ONLINE GP SERVICES

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Take-home blood pressure tests to radically change diagnoses

Survey reveals patients of all ages and backgrounds would order scripts and book appointments on the internet A survey has revealed an overwhelming demand from patients to have more GP services, like booking appointments and ordering repeat medication, online.

Of the 1,700-plus visitors to Patient.co.uk who were surveyed:  87% would use an online service to order repeat prescriptions  85% would like to be able to book GP appointments online  91% would use an online tool that allowed them to identify the side effects of drugs  90% would use an online symptomchecker tool.

Nearly half the respondents were over 55 – indicating that demand for internet-based health services is not limited to the young.

Nor is it limited to any socio-economic group: a third of those who took part in the survey and disclosed their income earned less than £15k.

It is, however, women who use online health services more than men, as over three quarters of respondents were female.

Over 1,000 health professionals who were surveyed strongly supported more online health services: 88% agreed it was a good idea to offer online ordering of repeat prescriptions; 86% were in favour of online appointment booking and 84% were in favour of patients checking drug side effects.

Younger healthcare professionals showed the strongest support for online services. A third of respondents who backed online GP services were under 35, 29% were between 35 and 44, and 28% were between 45 and 54. Only 11% were over the age of 55.

Neil Laycock, director of patient services at Egton Medical Information Systems Limited (EMIS), which operates www.patient. co.uk, said: “The survey results are interesting as they show that patients and doctors share a similar appetite for online services that can benefit both.

“They can help patients play a more active role in their own healthcare, and cut down on phone calls and administration time for busy practices.”

KEY FACTS    

87% of patients would use an online service to order repeat prescriptions 85% would like to be able to book GP appointments online 91% would use an online tool that allowed them to identify the side effects of drugs 90% would use an online symptom-checker tool.

One in three non-emergency 111 calls divert back to GP practices One in three patients who call the new NHS 111 number are diverted back to their GP practice, according to figures released from the pilot scheme.

Across the four pilot sites for the non-emergency number, including County Durham and Darlington, Lincolnshire, Luton and Nottingham, as many as 42% of callers are told to go to a primary care centre with their problem and 33% of all callers are told to go to their GP, according a Pulse report.

The service received 33,632 calls in June, which on a larger scale would represent 12 million calls per year across England – almost four million of which would be reverted to their GP practice.

The 111 non-emergency number was intended to act in part as a support for GP practices under pressure, providing immediate medical advice over the phone for patients with minor illnesses and injuries. With plans to expand the 111 service across England by 2013, starting in London, practices may have to prepare for a potential increase in patient appointments

In one of the biggest changes to its guidance, NICE has recommended that a diagnosis of primary hypertension should be confirmed using 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), or home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM), rather than solely on blood pressure taken in the clinic.

New evidence suggests that ABPM is more accurate than both clinic and home monitoring in defining the presence of hypertension, and that implementation of a diagnostic strategy for hypertension using ambulatory monitoring following an initial raised clinic reading would reduce misdiagnosis and save the NHS money.

High blood pressure is one of the most important preventable causes of premature death in the UK. Primary hypertension is diagnosed when there is no simple identifiable cause of the raised blood pressure: the hypertension may be related, in part, to obesity, dietary factors such as salt intake, physical inactivity or genes.

There are currently about 12 million people in the UK who have hypertension and more than half of those are over the age of 60. Around 5.7 million people have undiagnosed hypertension. As a consequence of commonplace routine periodic screening for high blood pressure in the UK as part of National Service Frameworks for cardiovascular disease prevention, the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients with hypertension is one of the most common interventions in primary care, accounting for around 12% of consultation episodes and approximately £1bn in drug costs per year.

Richard McManus, professor of primary care cardiovascular research, University of Birmingham, and a GP at Greenridge Surgery said: “These guidelines will mark a significant change in the way that we diagnose hypertension... This represents an exciting advance which I am sure will be taken up internationally.”

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ADVERTORIAL

TRAVEL IN THE MODERN AGE IT drives quality and productivity in travel health

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espite quality gains in many general practice areas, travel health should still be regarded as a work in progress. In a climate of increased litigation risk, failing to ensure travelling patients are given advice of the highest standard can result in negligence – a failure in the duty of care.

Private travel clinic providers like MASTA already use bespoke IT systems to guide the consultation process and minimise advice variability within and across their network of clinics. Is now the right time to look at applying similar solutions more broadly across the NHS? REDEFINING HIGH QUALITY TRAVEL HEALTH The quality of travel health advice still varies dramatically between practices, even with available travel health information sources such as TRAVAX, NaTHNac and MASTA. Recent case study research showed only 13% of practice nurses considered the full range of diseases for a given itinerary, even when referring to their preferred information source(s) (MASTA, 2011).

Variability is likely to be due to a number of issues, including the competency of the clinical staff through training,

absence of clinical protocols, together with their level of experience in providing advice for different travel health risks and vaccinations. Beyond this, clinics use a variety of different paper-based and online tools to capture travel risk information and vaccinations administered.

Development of innovative IT systems should be travel health specific, acknowledging a clinical process that is unique. Any system should meet duty of care requirements and this means more than simply recording vaccines administered – it needs to demonstrate that all the risks of travelling (including destination, activity and individual risks) have been assessed and these have been managed as far as reasonable. It should ensure a clear audit trail is available providing a full record of assessment, recommendations given and action taken – all that could be referred to in the event of possible future legal proceedings.

MORE PRODUCTIVE CLINIC Systems can also deliver those soughtafter productivity improvements by asking travelling patients to complete an online form well before coming into the clinic.

Built-in functioning, including easy-to-use tick- and drop-down-boxes can aid the recording process during the consultation,

both potentially saving time. Finally, IT solutions can complement and create efficiencies elsewhere in the practice through online appointment making and follow-up scheduling.

But while IT can deliver measurable improvements in the quality and productivity of travel health services, it needs to be seen alongside competently trained clinical staff, utilising these systems. Together this will ensure a consistently high quality service is delivered, ultimately benefiting the travelling patient. 

ABOUT MASTA With 25 years of experience, MASTA delivers a wide range of travel health services to clients, including the NHS. MASTA emphasises a consistent approach to providing travel health consultations across its clinic network through IT systems and training – including a bespoke etravelclinic consultation management system.

To find out more about how MASTA can help, please visit www.masta-travel-health. com/professionals or contact them at travelhealth@masta.org.

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The Meanwood Group Practice, Leeds is the very essence of the 21st century practice, using technology to run a tight ship. But practice manager and partner Shelli Fineberg insists it’s still all about good, old-fashioned patient care. Julia Dennison reports

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he Meanwood Group Practice in Leeds is every bit the modern GP surgery. It offers text messaging to remind patients about appointments; a touch screen check-in system in reception; an online appointment booking and repeat prescription service; and an electronic transfer of patient records when patients move to a new GP. As high-tech as the surgery seems in its recently refurbished premises, for practice manager and partner Shelli Fineberg, who’s been working in general practice for 21 years, modern technology can never replace good face-to-face patient care.

“I remember when we didn’t have a computer,” Fineberg recollects, as she considers how much has changed in those two decades.

“Now you feel like you’ve had your arm cut off if the server goes down!”

As much as technology helps her do her job better – it hasn’t always made her job easier.

“When computers first became something that were going to be used in general practice, we all thought we were going to be made redundant, and in effect all it’s done is increase the workload because of all the maintenance that you have to do to keep the technology and medical records up to date and secure,” she comments. “So you actually need more staff and more time, but you really couldn’t do without it now. When I think back to the days of writing out repeat prescriptions by hand, the big appointment book and those kind of things, I think technology is great, but it hasn’t given us loads of extra time.”

The practice is lucky that one of its GP partners is a bit of a whiz with technology. He has helped set up a system of plasma screens throughout the surgery displaying information and videos, so patients can see if a doctor is running late, for example. He also helped to develop the practice’s website.

Using the website’s appointment booking and repeat prescription services have proven popular with patients. “It’s made life easier for us and our patients too,” comments Fineberg.

“It’s often difficult for patients to get through on the phone or have a time when they can get through on the phone, so having access to appointments 24/7 is great for them.”

The GP2GP system, whereby a patient’s records are transferred electronically when they move from another practice, has also

MANAGEMENT

proven helpful because the data is brought over quickly, but it makes the idea of a countrywide GP IT system sound appealing.

“If the previous practice has not been as conscientious as we are in our coding, then our staff need to go through and check the codes in case they’ve used some local or erroneous coding,” Fineberg comments.

The human element has to form the backbone of any GP practice, insists this practice manager, and she often worries that too much focus on data and technology could be at the detriment of patient care. “Where GPs used to sit and listen to the patient and write a few notes, now they have all sorts of computerized templates to fill in,” she says. “So we have to remind ourselves that patients are our primary objective and they come before computers.”

Technology will undoubtedly prove essential to commissioning.

“At some point, hopefully somebody will come up with something that is going to help us be able to monitor more effectively what’s happening to our patients in real time,” Fineberg says. “At the moment, what we have available, while it’s useful, it’s out of date as soon as we get it, so as soon as we get a budget, we’ve probably overspent before we’ve got the best part of the data.” This data sharing is likely to improve if all the practices in a clinical commissioning group have the same system – currently this is not the case as individual practices in Calibre, the CCG that Meanwood is a member of, collect data using their own systems (Meanwood uses Emis) and send them to a central person at the pathfinder.

As we speak, Fineberg is sitting in the practice’s recently refurbished building. The premises are owned by Leeds PCT, which spent quite a lot of money adding on a couple of extensions, refurbishing all the rooms and upgrading the technology. Despite all the mod-cons, she’s still determined that in the end, the technology is only there to support the patient in the end. “Obviously technology has a very important role to play in the day-to-day running of general practice and we could not manage without it now,” she explains. “But I still feel strongly that it’s the person that’s important. We’ve got enough admin staff to collect data, the doctor really should concentrate on the person in front of them.” 

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We have to remind ourselves that patients are our primary objective and they come before computers”

PRACTICE MEANWOOD GROUP PRACTICE PCT LEEDS PATIENTS 12,700 CONTRACT GMS COMMISSIONING GROUP CALIBRE PARTNERS NINE CLINICAL STAFF EIGHT SUPPORT STAFF 20 PRACTICE MANAGER AND PARTNER SHELLI FINEBERG TIME IN ROLE 21 YEARS

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As primary care providers look for new ways to meet healthcare targets and deliver ‘more for less’, the benefits of telehealth services are being increasingly considered as a valuable adjunct to traditional care pathways. Two recent masterclass events brought together experienced telehealth providers from around the world with interested parties from the UK to share information and encourage debate. Jayne Lewis reports

THE TELEHEALTH DEBATE

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he pros and cons of telehealth solutions in primary care has been a subject of much debate among modern practitioners. A recent master class held at The King’s Fund sought to find answers by gathering health professionals keen to explore the potential benefits of telehealth services or to ‘scale up’ existing local schemes.

Entitled ‘How to deliver scalable telehealth programmes that work – enhancing the delivery of patient outcomes’, Dr David Morgan, consultant surgeon and associate professor at the University of Warwick’s Clinical Research Institute; started proceedings at the Aleresponsored event by explaining the fundamental differences between traditional and telehealth approaches to delivering healthcare.

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Originally based at an NHS Trust, Dr Morgan said that his interest in finding a different way to manage patients with longterm conditions stemmed from a conversation with a young wound patient who, tired of regularly visiting the clinic, asked whether he could send a photo instead. The idea of patients sending information from the comfort and convenience of their own home was triggered and he immediately saw the potential of delivering a more patient-centred, proactive service that not only engaged patients in their own care, but also made better use of limited healthcare resources.

Emphasising that advances in communications technology coupled with the availability of simple point of care testing devices have made remote monitoring a realistic proposition, he described how he had established a service to focus on delivering telehealth services to patients with long term conditions (LTC) – the sector of the healthcare market that “is massive and increasing in size and cost to the NHS with our aging population profile”.

Dr Morgan highlighted that the 17.7 million people with LTCs in the UK account for £7 out of every £10 spent by the NHS and the average primary care trust (PCT) has 25,000 LTC patients. “Managing these patients and keeping them out of hospital represents a huge challenge to primary care providers,” he said, “and whilst reducing costly unplanned admissions and re-admissions are major NHS targets, they can only be achieved by improved monitoring and high levels of support – provisions that absorb considerable time and resources, particularly for specialist community nursing teams.”

Dr Morgan reported the findings of a pilot study that provided telehealth services to chronic obstructive pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients in South Birmingham PCT. Even though the average age of those enrolled in the study was 76, they were fully capable of performing easy tests, e.g. blood oxygen, blood pressure, weight and answering simple on-screen questions on a dedicated mobile phone. Results were sent via the phone to a secure server that prompted immediate alerts to be sent, if a patient’s condition was at risk of exacerbating, to the appropriate clinical support via text or email. The web-based system allowed clinicians easy access to the patient data via a web portal and to provide immediate telephone support to those whose results gave cause for concern. People found it easy to use the touch screen device with usage and compliance consistently above 90%. It took the telehealth team less than one hour per day to support 100 patients – a level of productivity that

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is unachievable in traditional care approaches and there was evidence that self-management increased over the 12 month period of the trial.

The Birmingham study demonstrated a strong return on investment (ROI), reducing unplanned hospital admissions by 75%, representing a cost saving of 69%. Across the Birmingham study of 50 patients with COPD this achieved a £250,000 saving in unplanned hospital admissions alone, equating to over £5,000 per patient per year. The trust has gone on to develop a business case to roll out this solution to support a COPD population of 8,000, which it estimates will save over £3m per annum. It has also identified the potential to increase productivity by up to 300% in using the Safe Mobile Care telehealth technology through development of new service pathways that the technology enables.

Speaker Dr. Alexander Molnar, CEO of GPH in Germany, concluded that a successful telehealth programme consists of data-driven intervention combined with individual telephonic coaching. “Thus sophisticated technology has to be combined with the highest level of service centre support,” he explained.

“With experienced nurses at the end of the phone, patients feel reassured and confident in managing their condition – reducing the need to involve the emergency services.”

However, he said, the nurses and physicians are totally dependent on accessing the information that they need about the right patient at the right time. This requires an infrastructure that brings together ‘home use’ units such as scales and point of care analysers, data input devices, network providers, analysis software and the configuration of workflow.

It also needs the flexibility to add new technologies as they emerge, he said, such as new biomarkers and pacemaker feedback. He added: “With all of this in place, telehealth has a real and positive role to play in reducing the burden of chronic disease and improving clinical outcomes.”

During a lively discussion at the end of the session, participants explored how the benefits of telehealth services could be applied to their particular situations. The general consensus was that the government’s demands for the NHS to provide better, more patient-focused services with less resources will be a key driver for change and the need to better manage the increasingly large number of patients with long term conditions while reducing hospital admissions and re-admissions will encourage new care pathways that are likely to include telehealth monitoring. 

Telehealth has a real and positive role to play in reducing the burden of chronic disease and improving clinical outcomes”

Operational efficiency is imperative in a changing climate.

Most Practices have clinical systems that work well for them. Many have patient facing websites that work well for patients and the Practice.

The missing link in many GP surgeries is an efficient way of running the operational side of the Practice. Think of the operational elements of the Practice as a necessary chore for you and your staff that detracts from patient facing support functions. Then, relating this to cost, ask yourself the following question: How efficient would your best employees be if you halved their pay after one year?

Wouldnʼt it be good to have an employee who ensures all of your documents are current and simple to find, and can organize all of your evidence for all of your regulatory processes? If that employee made sure everyone reads mandatory documents and communicated all information across the Practice and Consortium, how much would they be worth?

As an added bonus and without claiming overtime, what if they could also make sure your address books were up to date and easily searchable? Or if they could control emergency drugs and fridge temperature logs and look after your staff rota? And populate staff calendars with training, appraisals, CRB checks, HepB vaccinations and take care of room bookings? Then control Practice assets, look after your complaints and significant events processes, organize meetings and tag all of your processes and documents for CQC registration and future inspection?

Then what if the same employee could control who can view, add, edit or delete any information within the operation of the Practice?

If you could employ someone to do all of this and more, at minimum wage, working for just 6.5 hours per week; then halve their pay after one year (whilst expecting them to do more), would you employ them?

Of course you would.

(Oh, and by the way, what if they never take sick leave or holidays, are never late for work, never forget tasks and work 7 days a week, 24 hours a day for no extra pay?)

Intradoc247 is that employee.

Free your staff to support your patients.

Go to www.intradoc247.com to find out more.

Or call us on 0300 30 30 130

Technology shouldnʼt replace people; it should help your people to support your patients.

“Intradoc will benefit the

practice immensely in so many different ways in the lead up to our registration with the Care Quality Commission and beyond.

This is a piece of software tailor-made for General Practices with the ability to be tweaked to meet specific requirements.”

Dave Stapleton, PM, Wakefield.

“After our demo we did some more research, had some more demos with other companies but were impressed with the simplicity of Intradoc247 and also liked the ease with which this company planned our Intranet in such a way that addressed our personal needs but were also responsive to how we may wish to develop this tool in the future.”

Margaret West, PM, Newmarket

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With the prospect of patient choice, Julia Dennison finds out how to run a patient-focused health service and define your practice’s USP

ONE IN A MILLION W

ith the unrest that surrounds the Health Bill, one element of last July’s white paper that is particularly unsettling to many practices across the country is the abolition of practice boundaries. In ‘Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS’, the government outlined its commitment to “give every patient a clear right to choose to register with any GP practice they want with an open list, without being restricted by where they live”. If all goes to plan, this freedom to choose will be bestowed upon patients in April 2012.

In the run-up to the white paper, the Department of Health launched a public consultation in March last year called ‘Your choice of GP practice: A consultation on how to enable people to register with the GP practice of their choice’. The consultation asked people if they had ever thought about changing their GP practice before and why. Nearly half of the respondents (46%) had indeed considered changing and for many this was chiefly because of geographic boundaries – however, others thought about moving to seek out a better service from their GP practice or because they found it difficult to get a convenient appointment.

WHAT’S IN AN APPOINTMENT? The results of the 2010 GP Patient Survey reiterated the frustration surrounding appointment booking. Despite 90% of the 1.93 million patients surveyed admitting they were satisfied with the overall care they received from their practice, booking appointments was still a point of

contention for many. One in five said it was difficult to get through to their surgery on the phone and of the patients who were unable to see their doctor “fairly quickly” at least once in the last six months, 83% said it was because no appointments were available.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has said he hopes the new NHS 111 non-emergency hotline, which is already available in some parts of the country, could alleviate the issue, since it is offered as an alternative if patients feel they can’t wait for a GP appointment. This is all well and good for urgent matters; however, Jo Webber, deputy policy director of the NHS Confederation, believes GP practices are not doing enough to facilitate their own appointment-booking service: “Patients need to be able to access their GP easily otherwise there is a serious risk they will add to the already considerable pressures faced by A&E departments and 999 services. This survey shows more needs to be done to ensure consistent access.”

A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF With full choice of GP practices less than a year away for patients, now is the time for practice managers to focus on what they can do to set themselves apart. Easing the process of booking appointments is important as a priority, but a practice should ensure everything from the waiting room to the doctor’s ‘bedside manner’ are in the best state possible. Julian Harrison, a director at NHS mail order pharmacy Pharmacy2U, suggests thinking about all your different patient types and considering each one’s

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A good way to prepare your practice for a new era of greater patient choice is to look at your services from the patient’s point of view”

individual needs: “A good way to prepare your practice for the new era of greater patient choice is to look at your services from the patient’s point of view, and to consider how well you serve the needs of different groups.”

Ensuring patients know their choices will save a practice time and money. Online services are already proving very popular with busy patients. In March 2011, a total of 385,943 transactions were conducted via EMIS’s online patient services, including appointment booking/ cancelling; repeat prescription ordering; change of address notification; patient-clinician messaging; new patient pre-registration; and record view log-ins. As commuters are a group that is more likely to look to change their practice to access health services closer to work, practices should anticipate a ‘commuter shift’ and recognise that they may appreciate online access more than others.

GETTING ONLINE Sean Riddell, chief executive of software firm EMIS says he absolutely believes introducing or expanding online transactional services for patients is an essential step to improving your offering. “Patients are becoming ever more internet-savvy,” he says, “and they welcome secure services that make it quicker and easier to manage everyday tasks.”

The ability to order repeat prescriptions online is one example Riddell gives of a very popular and widely-used online service – alongside GP appointment-booking. The next step he suggests might be offering patients with long-term conditions full access to their medical record online. “Some

patients with conditions such as diabetes and asthma are already able to consult with their GP and manage their condition online,” Riddell explains.

Harrison agrees that offering more services online will only help to facilitate a surgery’s relationship with its patient population, particularly in regards to repeat prescriptions: “Practices that offer services to make the process easier – for example, secure online prescription requesting or home delivery – will not only benefit from the goodwill of existing patients, but can also create a strong selling point for attracting new patients.”

Managing repeat medication can be a real headache for lots of patients – including busy working people and the elderly or the housebound, who struggle with frequent trips to the practice and the pharmacy, Harrison says, adding that it is also a problem in rural areas where patients may live some distance from their nearest pharmacy.

You can do everything you can to ensure patients have the best experience, but if you don’t shout out loud about it, your efforts could be futile. “Many practices are already ahead of the game, but even those that are offering a good choice of patient services sometimes forget to actively promote them,” Harrison agrees. “It’s important to keep reminding patients of the options open to them.”

If you’re unsure as to where to start when marketing your practice, a patient survey is always helpful and with free tools like SurveyMonkey available to all, finding out just what would make your patients stay or go is only a click away. 

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TOP 10 TIPS

RUNNING A ST 21 CENTURY PRACTICE We bring you a checklist of 10 pieces of kit that are a must for a GP practice in the modern age

1

A SMART PATIENT CALLING AND WAITING ROOM SYSTEM: Possibly one of the most effective time-saving devices for a practice to own, the patient calling system is no longer just a means to log patients in and out of the surgery. The latest in patient calling technology not only does the expected patient calling, logging in and audio announcement functions, but also features the ability to add presentations, messages, statistical information, and health information for the benefit and education of your patients. Screens in your waiting room also allow you to televise all of your practices’ events, health advice, vaccination dates, appointments and exercise services to your patients.

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A MEDICAL APP: Smartphones and tablets like the iPad have revolutionised time and data management in the workplace, and the practice is no exception. There are apps available on the market created specifically for general practice that help increase efficiency and simplify the day-to-day functions of a GP by providing the practice’s medical database at the swipe of a finger, so a patient’s profile and medical history can be summoned on a portable iPad screen in an instant. One such app also includes a speech-to-text converter, clinical note sharing, quick-printing ability and the potential to obtain X-ray, EKGs and laboratory results as soon as they become available.

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A RELIABLE SUITE OF PRINTERS: Quality printers in every consultation room and in the office can make all the difference when running the administration of a GP practice.

Choose carefully and consider a print contract to ensure you keep costs at a minimal – multi-functional printers that copy, print and fax are a good bet. Printers made for the primary care market are approved for use with your practice’s IT systems and feature a specified tray for prescription printing. An electronic labeller is another must-have for the practice – as they are quick, simple and eradicate the possibility of mislabeling samples, vaccines or forms. They can reduce labeling time by about 80% and many use thermal print technology, so there is no need for any ink or ribbon refills, and are perforated so that they can fit both samples and forms.

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LINK UP YOUR DATABASE WITH YOUR PHONE SYSTEM: There are systems on the market that link up your practice’s patient database with its telephone system so that when a patient calls, their records are displayed automatically on the computer screen, saving practice staff time searching for them – which can mean up to 20 seconds saved per call.

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A SAFE FRIDGE: Every practice that holds vaccines requires an up-to-date, quality medical fridge so that it can keep its vaccines safe and at the correct temperature. Up to £35,000 of drugs and vaccines can be held within the confines of a small 45L fridge so keeping them safe is paramount. Furthermore, fridges ensure the security and accountability of drugs and vaccines so that they do not end up given to the wrong person or being tampered with.

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INVEST IN TELEHEALTH SOLUTIONS: Use technology to get patients involved in their own healthcare wherever possible. There is technology on the market that allows patients to take an electronic record of their own diagnostics data, such as BMI, oxygen saturation, blood pressure and clinical statistics without the need of a medical professional to aid them.

Whether these solutions are in a curtained-off corner of your practice’s waiting room or something the patients can take home can be decided by your GPs.

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A TELEPHONE TRIAGE SYSTEM: Implementing a system where patients are vetted when they call up for an appointment is a great way of ensuring that only those who need to see a GP get to see them. A telephone triage system can greatly increase your practice’s efficiency, and will ensure that your patients are properly diagnosed and that your practice remains on schedule.

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TEXT REMINDERS: Use patient communication technology, such as text reminders, to coordinate things like flu vaccine clinics and remind patients of their appointments. It is proven to significantly reduce the number of did-not-attends (DNAs).

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BETTER DICTATION EQUIPMENT:With most practices using digital dictation equipment, there are plenty of speech-totext software solutions that will ensure your doctors’ letters are typed up automatically, without the need for the receptionist to type them up for them. Accessories like headsets can also really help a GP type as they talk on the phone.

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PUT MORE ONLINE: Ensure your practice’s website is in the best shape it can be and designed in line with international web standards to help users with disabilities.

Progressive features on GP websites include online prescription filling and appointment booking, as well as email consultations and messaging services.

Why should clinical software stability feel like walking a tight rope?

PRACTICE MANAGER FOR WINDOWS

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