Background
HUTH began working with Patients Know Best in 2019, with the aim of supporting patients to keep track of hospital visits and play an active role in their own health care. The initial focus was to digitally notify patients of their appointments and appointment documentation as soon as they were booked, using a computer, tablet device or smartphone. The future aims were to enable people with long-term conditions to manage and monitor their health and conditions more practively, such as sending their own glucose, weight or heart readings to their health teams, preventing unnecessary visits to hospital.
As of March 2023:
- 140,000 patients have registered to use PKB
- 55,000+ letters are being read every three months (saving the NHS money and reducing carbon emissions)
- Over 3,300,000 digital appointments have been shared
- 20+ clinical teams are using PKB for their service delivery
All resulting in better patient experiences and outcomes, reduced DNAs and more efficient use of NHS services. You can read more about their achievements and usage below.
In March 2020, neighbouring organisation, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust followed in HUTHs footsteps, this was then expanded in April 2022 to the wider Humber and North Yorkshire (HNY) region. This expansion allows for all organisations (including GPs, Community Services and Mental Health providers), patients and services across HNY to use PKB.
In support of this regional adoption and the wide usage, access to PKB in the NHS App was enabled for all patients registered to a HNY GP in 2021, information on how to register and access additional information in the App can be found here.
If you are a patient of healthcare services within the following organisations/a resident of HNY you can register via the button below.
Humber and North Yorkshire Organisations
Clinical Team Utilisation
Supporting pre-assessment & perioperative workflows
Preassessment forms team
To improve the pre-assessment workflow for patients and create efficiencies for the Trust, HUTH implemented a digital pre-assessment pathway. This consisted of issuing questionnaires to patients via PKB to determine what level and type of interaction a patient needed ahead of surgery. The answers are extracted and inputted to a local custom built dashboard used by the Admin and Nursing team to triage patients.
This pre-assessment pathway has been implemented in multiple cohorts to triage patients prior to pre-op and adoption is growing quickly.
Dressing team - post surgery
PKB is also used for patients to complete questionnaires and submit wound photographs following surgery. These are used by health teams to determine what support a patient needs, and can assist in identifying if an infection has occurred. As usage progresses, the intention is to remove face to face appointments for this pathway.
Kidney Dietetics Team
The kidney dietetics team has used PKB since November 2020 reducing telephone messages by 47%. As well as data being shared automatically with patients, the team also uses personalised care plans, questionnaires, messaging and a curated library to support their service delivery. This all reduces time and admin for care teams while providing an enhanced service for patients. An NHSE playbook on their usage is available here. Katherine Durrans (Clinic Manager & Professional Lead Dietitian) talks about the services used here. The Trust are now building on this team’s success by replicating with a similar model for an Oncology Dietetics Team Read more about this case study here.
Rheumatology Healthcare Prescription Team
Approximately 46 hours per year (1.5 weeks) of admin time is currently saved and able to be redeployed for other uses. The team is aiming to increase this to 2 full weeks of admin time saved. PKB’s questionnaire feature is used to remind patients to book their blood test to reduce the amount of time the team currently spends printing and sending letters to each patient, as well as the follow up phone calls to produce prescriptions and the cost of sending letters in the post. Read the full case study.
Immunotherapy - Toxicity Service
The Immunotherapy Service use questionnaires within PKB to monitor and report patients symptoms post treatment. Any patient undergoing Immunotherapy treatment is recommended to self monitor symptoms after treatment. Previously patients were given a leaflet with symptoms to look out for and asked to telephone the clinic if they have any concerns. Using PKB helped to mitigate the risk that patients were missed and symptoms not being consistently tracked.
Read more about this case study here.
MS Blood Monitoring Teams
PKB is used to send mass reminders to specific cohorts of patients prompting them to book their blood test and complete questionnaires for prescription support. Typically, this is done via individual telephone calls to each patient.
Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Team
This team is working on reducing phone calls to patients and patients needing to call the clinic. If blood results are stable, patients get a notification via PKB telling them no changes are required to their ongoing medication at this time and to collect their medication in the normal way rather than having to discuss this with their professionals.
Haematomachrosis Team
A PKB care plan will be used for Genetic Haemochromatosis patients to help risk stratify themselves. By selecting their symptoms and blood tests, as well as consulting information provided by their consultant, patients can determine whether self-referral for venesection or specialist review is necessary. The plan also includes links to valuable patient resources which can provide important information about the condition and its management, supporting better patient education and empowerment.
In addition to perioperative pathways and outpatient pathways, HUTH are implementing PKB across many cancer pathways including:
- Oncology Breast
- Cancer Fatigue Service
- Cancer Psychological Therapies
- Prostate Team
- Colorectal Teams
- Macmillan Breast Care x 2
- Testicular Cancer Team
These services are using PKB in a range of ways including:
- Notifying patients of their appointments
- Pre-consultation screening questionnaires & questionnaires to request appointments
- Access to pre-assessment videos and complete toxicities ahead of consultations
- A plan post treatment to monitor symptoms
- Activity diary for completion to help determine a personalised action plan
- Messaging & communication aids including direct access to clinical nurse specialist teams
- Library of resources for educational purposes and health and well-being support
- Advising patients when blood and scan appointments are due
- Remote clinical monitoring of patients
Future aspirations include viewing and assessment of remote blood results.
The future plans
HUTH are continuing to on board more clinical teams to directly engage with their patients digitally via the platform, with many teams scheduled to go live in the coming months.
There is also a big focus on enabling more data flows, better use of data, and easier access of data for professionals. Specific technical projects supporting these aims include: