Revolutionize patient journeys

Healthcare solutions Speak to an expert

0%

of patients opted for SMS.

0%

drop in DNA rate.

0

booking slots were saved.

Royal Bolton Hospital provides a wide range of health and wellbeing services to the people of Bolton and Greater Manchester. As one of the North West’s busiest acute NHS foundation trusts, they deliver care at their hospital, in community venues, and in patients homes.

The trust's future planning and strategies include becoming digital tech pioneers to revolutionize their patient journeys. Main challenge was their Did Not Attend rate (DNA) was at an all-time-high since the pandemic, and they didn't want to continue to rely on postal letter reminders.

Challenge

DNA was at an all-time-high since the pandemic

Solution

SMS and Voice Appointment Reminders.

Results

DNAs reduced by 22% and follow ups by 14% in 3 months.

Background

  • Source the most cost-effective provider that also offered the most intuitive and feature-rich technology – “get more bang for our buck”.

  • DNA rate at an all-time-high due to the pandemic.

  • Previous experience of text reminder service was only across a few specialties rather than inclusive to all Trust patients. Staff were eager to roll out in areas that weren’t previously live.

  • Trust goals include reducing their carbon footprint by avoiding postal reminders wherever possible.

How did we help?

Using Webex CPaaS solutions, SMS and voice appointment reminders were rolled out solving a number of use cases:

  • Conversational messaging gave patients interactivity options to confirm, cancel or rebook, saving the resource usually spent on inbound calls.

  • Inclusive, multi-channel communications ensured patients who are not digitally enabled won’t be left behind.

  • Message content is tailored to specific clinics or setup with generic messages for those who don’t require personalization.

  • Crucial instant messaging feature for communicating in bulk to patients (eg cancelled clinics) prevents patient dissatisfaction with advanced warning.

  • Covid team are also using the instant messaging tool to invite patients for vaccinations and send out test results at scale.

  • Full audit trail within the platform enables staff to see exactly what correspondence has taken place with a patient.

Results

  • New DNAs reduced by 22% and follow ups by 14% in 3 months.

  • High mobile capture of 93% achieved by meticulous pre-implementation work meant that they were in an excellent position to reach the majority of patients via SMS.

  • 3000 slots have been identified and potentially reutilized from cancellations and rebooks, helping to address current capacity issues.

  • Feedback from admin staff praising the “user friendly software” that is “much more efficient” than their previous platform, while others mention the usefulness of the live system that allows them to drill down into specifics for clinics and specialties.

“
Every request was dealt with effectively and efficiently, enabling us to move at pace and deliver within our agreed timescale. Overall, it was a really positive process for such a large implementation. ”
Jayne Brannan, Access, Booking and Choice Manager, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust

Future next steps

Start of a Trust-wide transformation journey to implement a full digital by default strategy:

The Trust will implement a Patient Engagement Portal delivering digital letters instantly to patient’s mobile phones. Digital patient assessment and waiting list validation projects using eForms.

Developing a reminder service through patient feedback from questions such as “Does this digital communication format work for you?” and “Do text reminders help you?”, with the ability to easily tweak messages based on response themes.

More resources.

SMS notifications

We uncover best practices and some handy examples to help you start notifying your audience.

Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS

A patient portal for remote monitoring.

RCS chat

How RCS chat is driving conversational messaging.
background-dark-circles

Ready to take the next step?

Talk to one of our experts today.

Contact us