With the vaccination programme in full swing, lockdown restrictions lifting and life returning to a more “normal” rhythm, many GP practices, healthcare providers and wellbeing practitioners are taking the step of returning to face-to-face appointments. “Opening Doors” really does seem to be the buzzword that is making its way across the healthcare sector and the return of “patient flow” is a relief to many, but still an obvious concern. As things stand currently it looks like we may not remove the threat of the covid virus and its variants, but we can reduce it and learn to live with it through vaccination, good hygiene practice and to a certain level, social distancing.
In order for you to join the “opening doors” movement, you will be considering how best to open up your facility to patients and create that “patient flow” that is required to keep everything safe and secure, giving your patients the feel good factor needed to get them back in front of you. Well, at EK we have the solution you need!
With patients in the main having been unable to visit your practice or surgery for well over a year there may be areas of their health they have not felt 100% about but have not wanted to “make a fuss”, so their primary reason for making a face-to-face appointment now that they are able may not necessarily be the only ailment that they need help with! So our kiosk can carry out an assessment in the waiting area for each patient before they even get to sit in front of you.
Areas that can be addressed are…
● Blood pressure: Why not invite all patients to take their blood pressure on arrival, results are uploaded straight into the patient record with alerts sent if parameters are breached – no need for manual entry of slips of paper!
● Asthma: Ask your Asthma clinic patients to regularly complete pathway questions on the kiosk at a time convenient to them
● Smoking status: Smoking questions are included in all questionnaire pathways on the kiosk with results uploaded into the patient record
● Weight Management: Meet your BMI targets by asking patients to use the integrated height and weight machine to record BMI directly into their record.
The self-screening kiosk can take the strain of routine monitoring and simultaneously contribute to QOF point collection - allowing more face-to-face appointment time for high-risk patients.
QOF is a voluntary reward and incentive programme to reward practices for the quality of care they provide and to standardise improvements in care. QOF encourages GPs to take a proactive approach to care with an emphasis on preventing ill-health by catching potential problems early. With a total of 635 points available, they are also an important source of income for GPs. You can find the 2021/22 guidance here.
Although there is QOF income on offer, GPs are currently facing intense workforce and workload pressures which have been made worse by the pandemic. Post-covid, surgeries are struggling to meet the increasing demand for appointments and are looking to new ways of working as they open fully. As part of re-opening, our self-screening kiosks can play an important role in managing patient flow.
Our self-screening kiosks can help GPs to meet their QOF targets by allowing patients to take vital signs checks and answer health questions at a time convenient to them. The data is integrated directly into the patient record via SNOMED coding with alerts sent to the GP if parameters are breached. Each self-screening health kiosk comes with full installation and support and is fully GDPR compliant. They are easily cleaned and require no clinician intervention to record data; let our kiosks help you to meet your QOF targets.
The restrictions during the pandemic have further enabled the NHS to push forward with new ways of working, and proactively encourage some more reluctant colleagues into using new technologies. Put simply, the utilisation of technology in general practice has been adopted at a far more rapid pace during the pandemic than it had been previously. If your practice, surgery or healthcare facility needs a little help to step up to the digital mark for health service providers, then we are more than happy to help - contact us here to discuss your needs and to arrange a demonstration.
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