Background
The PKB platform is known within the health board as Swansea Bay Patient Portal and provides patients with access to their blood test results, supportive library resources, informational care plans, questionnaires and messaging with clinical teams.
Additionally, patients are able to receive digital copies of their clinic and appointment letters through the Patient Portal.
NHS Wales App
I like the way that I am now able to see my results online, so I’m better prepared ahead of an appointment. I’m able to think about the questions I want to ask ahead of speaking to my nurse. It gives me more understanding of what’s going on – it is empowering in a way.
One of the benefits of the system for me is, as my dad gets a bit older, he is on a number of different types of medication and if he ever needs to go in to hospital, I can then go on and look at the medication and provide that to the consultants or the clinical staff wherever he is then admitted. Whether that is here in Swansea or anywhere in the UK.
Clinical use cases
Swansea Bay are live with over 30 clinical teams, successfully using PKB to meet their objectives including reducing telephone calls, fewer face to face appointments (resulting in lower patient travel) as well as reducing costs and delays from paper letters.
Swansea Bay patients are highly engaged - with 84% of letters send to patient records being read and 41% of patients logging in at least once per month.
Read more about Swansea’s use of PKB in the case studies below, including how the Rheumatology department saw a 75% reduction in phone calls after introducing PKB.
Case studies
Hybrid Mail could spell the end for old fashioned hospital appointment letters - The writing could soon be on the wall for thousands of appointment letters Swansea Bay mails out to patients every year. Sometimes these letters get lost in the post or arrive too late, which means appointments can be missed. They also come at a cost – both in financial and environmental terms. Read More
Online portal making a big difference to rheumatology patients - Calls to a helpline run by a Swansea Bay service have fallen dramatically as patients can now find out what they need to know for themselves. Read More
Transforming the face of traditional dermatology services - Patients Know Best (PKB) has been working with Swansea Bay University Health Board since 2015 to connect patients with their health and care information and provide the tools that enable them to self-assess and manage their conditions. Read MoreI use it for notifications and as a medical diary. I have a problem with my heart as well so I see another consultant, so I put all this on and it reminds me when I have an appointment. After being in hospital, having treatment for cancer and being discharged, it was the anxiety of being at home with no contact. But with this system if you have any queries you just ask.
Having access to my blood results has made such a difference as it’s allowing me to plan my daily life around my condition. If I’ve needed help with my pain, the patient portal allows me to send a secure message and I’ve had a prompt response from the nurse specialist and the appointment team. The information in the library regarding my condition is also really helpful.
Lab results
Patients in Swansea benefit from having access to their health test results via their PKB record. They are able to see their routine blood and test results, supporting better self management of their health and reducing the need for extra contact with their clinicians. At the end of 2024, Swansea patients have access to 23 million lab results via PKB, with over 60,000 new results added each month. This has had a direct impact on patient care and clinical capacity. Dermatology patients use PKB to access their blood results, eliminating the need for certain face to face appointments. During the pilot phase of this work, 288 face to face appointments were avoided, allowing clinicians to dedicate time to those patients requiring direct support.
I like the way that I am now able to see my results online, so I’m better prepared ahead of an appointment. I’m able to think about the questions I want to ask ahead of speaking to my nurse. It gives me more understanding of what’s going on — it is empowering in a way.
Hybrid mail
Reducing waste is a central part of the Welsh Government’s Decarbonisation Plan which aims to achieve a net zero public sector by 2030.
Health boards across Wales are sending hundreds of thousands of paper letters to patients every day. This has a large carbon footprint impact and, additionally, it is not always the most convenient for patients.
Swansea Bay offer their patients the ability to receive digital copies of their clinic and appointment letters through the Patient Portal.
Looking at a 12 month period between March 2023 and March 2024, in a pilot in the Rheumatology department, Swansea Bay sent 2461 appointment letters to their patients who had registered to use the portal. These letters have been configured, in partnership with Synertec hybrid mail provider, with ‘print and post’ rules. This means that any letters read by the patient on the Portal, within a predetermined time frame, do not get posted, thus removing the need to print and post.
Over the 12 months, 79% of all letters that were sent digitally were read on the portal . Of the letters that were read by the patient, 90% were read before the postal date and therefore avoided printing and postage.
The carbon savings from this equates to the emissions from a car driving approx 650-700 miles. The future potential cost and carbon savings for the health board is huge as the print and post pilot is expanded to other document types and other specialities within the health board.