In September 2014, the CQC rated Imperial’s outpatient services as inadequate, citing the Trust’s 17% did not attend (DNA) rate and the “poor administration of appointments”. To improve their communication with patients they have embraced electronic solutions. A text reminder service was introduced in early 2015 and in Autumn 2016, appointment letters started going out via the Xerox hybrid mail system, which sends documents by email where there is a valid email address available and by post if not. In September 2018, they adjusted their kiosk outpatient check-in process so that verifying an email and mobile number automatically triggered an invite to register for the north west London patient portal.
By Q2 2019, the Trust’s DNA rate had fallen to 10.7%, and was the lowest amongst comparator trusts in London. Email is now the route of communication for 27% of follow up, and 22% of new appointment, letters sent by Xerox. The use of email is effective and cost saving: patients receiving email appointments are 25% less likely to DNA than those that receive letters in the post and the hybrid mail system is on track to deliver £1m of savings over the four year Xerox contract. 30,000 patient have now registered for the Care Information Exchange patient portal.
Imperial now has centrally funded access to four ‘attend anywhere’ waiting rooms for 12 months, to offer patients the option of a video consultation (VC) in place of a face to face outpatient appointment. This pilot represents a very timely opportunity to enable the Trust to deliver on its strategic commitment to have 25% of follow up outpatient appointments carried out virtually.