Black Country Integrated Care System (ICS) is rolling out an ICS-wide patient engagement portal by communications specialist, Healthcare Communications, to improve patient experience, reduce waiting lists and make financial savings.
The system is already live at The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.
A final implementation at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust will follow later this year.
They form an extensive digital programme to digitise patient engagement for 1.21m residents.
Each Trust is using the patient portal platform to deliver digital appointment letters and attachments directly to people’s smartphones to book, change or cancel their appointments at the click of a button.
Healthcare Communications’ intuitive platform has reduced costly and inefficient paper processes and carbon footprints, as well as replacing legacy systems that did not meet accessibility compliance standards.
Digital-first letters are also supporting challenges with high did not attend (DNA) rates that are contributed to by paper-based letter processes.
At The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust alone, the DNA rate was 10 per cent pre-implementation, with 48 per cent of DNA patients identifying paper letters as the route cause.
The trust was the first to go live trust-wide last year, after rationalising and standardising 3,500 letter templates to just 316, across 148 departments in acute and community settings.
Digital letter invitations have clocked up to half a million sent, with an 80 per cent digital adoption rate as of September.
In the first four months, 7,329 wasted slots were avoided and DNAs reduced by 5 per cent, equating to over £1m estimated income gains and 780 hours saved annually, that can be redirected on patient care.
The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust’s Applications Support Specialist and Registration Authority Manager, Gina Vowles, said: “Our fundamental driver was to improve patient experience by offering people more choice and flexibility for how they receive and engage with correspondence.
“I’m pleased to share that the successful implementation has secured additional funding to extend the portal functionality by introducing e-forms, waiting list validation and patient initiated follow up (PIFU).”
In June 2024, 1,254 patients were surveyed on the portal with 75 per cent of people stating they found accessing their digital letter ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’.
Additional feedback from participants included comments such as “I think it’s a brilliant way of getting in touch without the concern of letters getting lost or put through the wrong letter box.
“Our neighbour had my letter for two weeks which nearly resulted in a missed appointment.”
At neighbouring Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, the Healthcare Communications portal is managing 18,000 appointments per week across all outpatient wards.
The trust is working on extending its scope to include patient surveys, e-consent forms, appointments for surgery day cases, and providing clinical letters and supporting information after an appointment.
Louise Brown, Digital Transformation Manager at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, said: “Over 6,000 people have registered for the portal since March and we’ve had lots of positive feedback from patients.
“We are targeting 10 to 20 per cent reduction in DNAs and are on track to hit it by bringing further functionality and services on board, as it stands it has reduced by 12 per cent.”
Staff at the trust are also benefiting from tracking functionality that enables teams to monitor if a patient has received their letter.
It’s providing visibility that wasn’t previously possible and is helping admin staff to manage services more effectively.
Kenny Bloxham, Global Healthcare Director at Healthcare Communications, said: “It’s a pleasure working with the Black Country on its journey to roll out innovative patient communications ICS-wide, because it’s an opportunity to scale up secure technology to enhance patient experience.
“As the market leader in patient communications, we know from other ICS implementations that this approach is the most beneficial in terms of impact and familiarity for populations and efficiency gains.”
