Reducing hospital referrals by 50% for diabetic patients in Liverpool
With the aim of both reducing hospital admissions and delivering proactive care closers to patients’ homes, Liverpool Diabetes Partnership (LDP) is bringing together healthcare professionals across primary, secondary and acute settings to provide a targeted multidisciplinary service using EMIS Web to access shared patient records at the point of care.
“People are being seen in the right place, at the right time, by the right person.” Explains Jan Fennell-Rutherford, operations manager at LDP.
Going paper-free at the point of care
Removing the need to rely on paper records has played a big part in the service redesign’s success. Now that they’re using electronic templates clinicians across disciplines can capture data and update patient records in a structured format.
Recording notes is speedier than ever before and care is easier to provide in patients’ homes with the help of EMIS Mobile. Plus, healthcare professionals throughout the service can automatically create and send electronic letters using the templates – something that’s also cut printing and postage costs.
“Consultants are generating their own letters,” details Jan. “If we run a clinic in the morning, GPs will have the letter from those clinics by 2.00pm at the latest. Consultants aren’t having to lengthen their appointment time to do it either. They can move onto the next patient and the GP doesn’t have to wait for weeks for the letter.”
Helping clinicians across specialities to deliver safe and connected care
Having the same access to shared notes has benefitted clinical relationships, with healthcare professionals now finding that they’re having more valuable conversations and are collaborating more effectively.
“Now the consultants know that they can access the GP record, they don’t need to ring up the GP and wait for a fax,” Jan explains. “When the patient is in front of them, they have that information. It’s improved relationships and made the communication quicker.”
And if a phone call is still needed, the problem solving becomes easier because you can see everything. The other clinician doesn’t have to repeat all of the details, which makes care much safer.
Targeted care packages that give patients a better experience and better outcomes
But by being able to truly deliver a connected multidisciplinary service, LDP is providing better continuation of care for their patients.
“Patients have noticed the difference. The fact that the GP knows what’s happened – they love it. It works how patients expect it to work,” explains Collette.
Search and Reports within EMIS Web has also enabled the team to identify cohorts of patients at risk of developing diabetes and make targeted interventions. With teams of experts working to prevent the condition from developing in the first place, people across Merseyside are experiencing better care and better health.
Better outcomes and out-performed targets
All of these improvements have cumulatively had a big impact, as Jan explains, “The number of referrals to Aintree Hospital are now minimal. They have 50% less patients coming through their doors because we’re looking at those 50% of patients. We’ve done the same for the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University NHS Trust too. The referral-to-treatment time in Aintree is four weeks for diabetes and the Royal is down to about 16 weeks – those are better than the 18-week target. Now if patients are referred to hospital and it’s an inappropriate referral, they’re sent to us and we triage them.”