Patient Care Messaging | Benefits | Technology | Press | FAQ | Contact

On average 15% of all patients in the United Kingdom miss their GP or clinical appointments. Estimates on how much this costs the National Health Service vary but some put it as high at £400 million annually. Without a doubt huge resources are wasted in every healthcare facility every day. Research indicates that patients miss appointments for two key reasons: 1) they forget and 2) they find it too cumbersome to cancel or change the appointment. A timely text message to their mobile phone combined with an ability to cancel or confirm via reply text can cut the rate of Did-Not-Attend (DNA). 

iPLATO is a leader in automated text messaging solutions in UK healthcare. Starting in 2002, iPLATO has developed Patient Care Messaging (PCM) in close partnership with several NHS Trusts. The service is suitable for primary, secondary, mental and community care. The results from our earliest installations show that the service reduces DNA rates without adding extra work for site administrators. PCM contributes to increase the quality of service provided to patients and has proven to be the best method for communicating with the socially excluded and minorities.

Application highlights...

• Integrates to any clinical and patient administration system.
• Installation and training takes less than ½ day and requires no IT skills.
• Automatic generation of predefined reminders means no extra work for site administrators.
• Sends texts messages at a pre-defined time to the patient.
• Tried and tested best practise for permission management, patient confidentiality and service integrity.
• Allows feedback from patients to be automatically directed to the relevant doctor/nurse.
• Allows for the creation and sending of manual text-messages to individual and groups of patients (flu-jabs reminders, etc.).
• Accessed and administered through an easy-to-use web interface.
• A managed service with centralised architecture which is continuously improved to capitalise on technology evolution.
• A secure solution and the only text messaging service located on the NHSnet.
• Preserves service integrity as it does not rely on sponsors to pay for messages.

Automatic appointment reminders

Patient Care Messaging is fully integrated to existing Patient Administration System. This allows healthcare professionals to carry on as usual and enter the new appointments into the system they are familiar with. PCM is integrated with the PAS and automatically generates the reminder messages. Compared to a letter- or phone-based reminder system, this means no printing, no postage and most importantly, no additional work.

Manual Messages

Using Patient Care Messaging, the healthcare provider can send manual text messages to individuals or groups of patients for medication reminders, flu-jab registrations and health advice. Research indicates that the response rate from messages delivered over text is far higher than letter, phone call, hand-outs and posters. Over the years, iPLATO and our partners have had the opportunity to fine tune the effectiveness of this feature as well as permission management which tends to be different from automatic appointment reminders. PCM offers manual messaging through an easy-to-use secure website where healthcare professionals compose messages and set the delivery options using a patient phone book.

The Benefitsa

Improve service to patients...
Mobile telephones are personal devices which users carry with them all times. This makes mobile phones ideal for direct and immediate communication with Patients. Patient Care Messaging is a first step to opening this convenient channel for health communications. By sending timely reminders of a patient’s health appointment and allowing the patient to respond via the same channel, the healthcare site is offering a valuable service that that adds greatly to the perceived quality of care.

Reduce waiting lists and operate more efficiently...
PCM operation requires little or no human intervention thereby improving the overall efficacy and productivity of the healthcare site. PCM has proven to...

• Reduced DNA rate
• Reduced waiting times
• Direct cost savings
  - Time-savings for Admin staff
  - No or less postage and stationary equipment used
• Reduced workload
• Minimal extra training – simply, how to add text messages and read replies.

Reach out to socially excluded and minorities
For patients with unstable living conditions, the mobile phone is very often the only communication channel available. Whilst a voice call can be perceived as intrusive a text message has proven welcome for receiving important information. For minorities, PCM offers multi-language functionality and iPLATO works actively with communities to provide timely communication in the most appropriate and convenient way.

Technologya

PCM is a managed service designed to offer maximum flexibility, efficiency, scalability and security. The central architecture also allows for quick and seamless implementation of new features to capitalise on technology innovation. The application runs on a secure server hosted on NHSnet which enables easy integration to any PAS. To retrieve the necessary appointment and contact details, PCM integrates directly with the standard application programming interfaces. Web-service architecture also means no additional hardware investment for the customer.

Systems we have already integrated with

• EMIS
• InPractice Systems
• Sepia
• Psymon

iPLATO has agreements in place with all dominant clinical and patient administration systems providers for integration as and when required.

Security

PCM fulfils the highest security standards of the NHSIA. All communications between the various solution components are encrypted (128 bit SSL) and secure. The PCM server system itself is hosted within NHSNet, this ensures the physical and electronic security of any stored data as well as the security of the communication between the PAS and PCM.

Pressa

Recent media coverage of PCM.

• London's LBC Radio speaks to iPLATO MD, Tobias Alpsten about the recent roll-out of Patient
Care Messaging in Ealing, West London


• e-Health Insider : Ealing PCT uses text message technology
  
• Medical News Today reviews Ealing PCT's text messaging roll-out to 22 GP surgeries
  
• IT Pro analyses Ealing PCT's decison to implement text messaging
  
• Silicon.com "Ealing PCT chooses iPLATO and the Orange network as text messaging partners"
  
• e-Health Insider looks at the INPS and iPLATO Partnership
  
• Lewisham PCT chooses iPlato for SMS reminders
  
• BBC Essex: Interview with Dr Paul Husselbee, Nov 7, 2005
  
• NHS Magazine: '...cut missed appointments and also promote public health'
  
• TimesOnline: 'Bleeping sickness'
  
• HES Magazine: 'Phone messaging to cut missed appointments'
  
• PublicTechnology: 'NHS Mental Health Trust improves service with Patient Care Messaging'
  
• PublicTechnology: 'Patient Care Messaging system cuts missed appointments for Islington NHS PCT'
  
• BJHC: 'Patient no-shows cut by automatic messaging system'
  
• e-Health Insider: 'SMS reminds patients of upcoming appointments'
  
• SMS appointment reminders get language boost
  

Contacta

Interested? If you want to find out more or would like to meet to talk about Patient Care Messaging, please e-mail, call or send a text message to the individuals below. If you contact us we promise to get back to you within 24 hours.

Sheena Macpherson
sheena.macpherson@iplato.net
079 764 65936

FAQa

TECHNICAL

What PAS can you integrate with?
PCM can be linked with any PAS. The integration process is easier if a PAS provides standard APIs. Please click here for a list of PAS we have interfaces available.

How are the messages being delivered?
iPLATO’s partner for this technology is ORANGE by providing their SMS gateway to deliver the messages to any mobile phone.

Is any investment in hardware required?
No. The PCM application is running on a central server hosted on NHSnet. Each PAS system will be linked with the PCM server but no extra hardware is needed.

OPERATIONAL

What happens if a patient replies via text-message?
The text-message is converted into an email and sent to the relevant doctor or nurse.

GENERAL

Is your system part of the NPfIT?
No. But if your organisation decides to switch to a new technology, iPLATO will certainly be able to integrate with your new system, allowing an almost seamless switch.

What is the mobile phone penetration in the UK?
The penetration of the adult UK population has breached 80%. This percentage being even higher in the 15 - 35 years bracket, the group with the highest number of missed appointments.