Portsmouth DNA's down by almost 40%

PRESS RELEASE

15 October 2010

 

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust reduces DNAs and waiting times with interactive patient messaging

 

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has reduced Did Not Attend Rates (DNAs) by nearly 40% and cut outpatient waiting times following the introduction of a Trust-wide interactive patient messaging service from Healthcare Communications and O2 Health.

 

In just three months since introducing the Patientxt™ text and voice reminder system across all outpatient appointments, the Trust has seen a significant reduction in DNAs.  They were 38.3% lower in July 2010 than in July 2009 for follow-up appointments.

 

It means the Trust has been able to re-use an extra 1,776 appointments that would otherwise have been wasted.   This has helped to reduce waiting times and has enabled the Trust to save money by scheduling fewer clinics that are better attended.

 

If the success of the first three months (May-July 2010) continues throughout the year, the Trust will generate between 7,000 and 9,000 extra outpatient appointments.

 

Mandy Mugridge, Outpatient Project Manager at the Trust, said: “We commissioned this service as part of our ongoing work to bring down DNAs and improve the efficiency of our outpatient clinics.

 

“I am very pleased with the results to date.  We have already been able to reduce the number of clinics we run as a direct result of this project, and our waiting times are coming down as we re-use spare clinic capacity.

 

“Because waiting times are coming down, we also no longer need to schedule extra clinics at a high cost.”

 

Keith Nurcombe, Head of O2 Health, commented: “This is a fantastic result! It’s another example of our long-standing partnership with both Portsmouth and Healthcare Communications delivering better patient experiences and real savings to the trust.”

 

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest in England.  It runs 1,379 outpatient clinics each month – totalling around 600,000 appointments a year.

 

The collaboration between Healthcare Communications, O2 Health and Voice Sage successfully delivered the two-way text and voice reminder system for patients.  Using mobiles and landline telephones, the system reminds patients of upcoming appointments and enables them to quickly and easily cancel appointments no longer required.

 

Healthcare Communications Director Mike Cunningham said: “The key to the success of this project was the decision to message the whole patient group either by text to mobile or interactive voice to landlines. This meant the Trust could offer the appropriate communication channels to specific groups.

 

“In today’s challenging economic climate, it is very pleasing to be able to report such a strong return on investment for the Trust in a relatively short space of time.

 

“We look forward to working with the Trust to further our initial success and thank Mandy and her team for their whole-hearted commitment to the project.”

 

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Notes to editors

• Healthcare Communications is a leading provider of communication software to the healthcare sector.  Its two main areas of activity are interactive patient messaging solutions and integrated directory services. www.healthcomm.co.uk
• O2 Health is a business unit within Telefónica O2 UK with resources dedicated to the healthcare market.
• The Patientxt™ service is delivered by Healthcare Communications and O2 Health. Introduced in 2003 – it was one of the first text messaging solutions available to the NHS. It is now used by 105 Secondary and Primary Care Trusts – equivalent to 24%* of all Trusts in England and has successfully sent over 20 million messages to date.

* Calculation is 105 Patientxt client systems active in 2009, from a total of 432 Trusts in England (188  PCTs, 185 NHS Acute/Foundation & 59 Mental Health sourced from www.nhs.uk )

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