Patient engagement portal rolled out across Black Country ICS

Black Country Integrated Care System (ICS) is rolling out a patient engagement portal (PEP) from Healthcare Communications with the aim of improving patient experience, reducing waiting lists and saving money.

The PEP will start to be implemented at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust by the end of 2025, following go lives at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust in March 2023, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust in March 2024, and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust in July 2024.

Each trust is using the patient portal platform to deliver digital appointment letters and attachments to people’s smartphones and provide the ability for patients to book and change or cancel appointments.

The platform from Healthcare Communications is intended to reduce costly and inefficient paper processes, replacelegacy systems that do not meet accessibility compliance standards and reduce carbon footprints.

Gina Vowles, applications support specialist and registration authority manager at the Dudley Group NHS FT, said: “Our fundamental driver was to improve patient experience by offering people more choice and flexibility for how they receive and engage with correspondence.

“I’m pleased to share that the successful implementation has secured additional funding to extend the portal functionality by introducing e-forms, waiting list validation and patient initiated follow up”.

Digital-first letters are also supporting the Dudley Group’s challenges with high did not attend (DNA) rates which paper-based letter processes contribute to.

The trust was first in the ICS to go live with the PEP in 2023.

In the first four months after implementation, the trust says that 7,329 wasted slots were avoided and DNAs reduced by 5%, equating to more than £1 million estimated income gains and 780 hours saved annually.

Also it says that digital letter invitations have risen to half a million sent, with an 80% digital adoption rate as of September 2024.

In June 2024, 1,254 patients were surveyed on the portal with 75% of people saying that they found accessing their digital letter ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.

At Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, the Healthcare Communications portal is managing 18,000 appointments per week across all outpatient wards.

The trust is working on extending its scope to include patient surveys, e-consent forms, appointments for surgery day cases, and providing clinical letters and supporting information after an appointment.

The PEP rollout forms part a programme to digitise patient engagement for 1.21 million patients in the Black Country.

Kenny Bloxham, global healthcare director at Healthcare Communications, said: “It’s a pleasure working with the Black Country on its journey to roll out innovative patient communications ICS-wide, because it’s an opportunity to scale up secure technology to enhance patient experience.

“As the market leader in patient communications, we know from other ICS implementations that this approach is the most beneficial in terms of impact and familiarity for populations and efficiency gains”.

Meanwhile, in March 2024, Black Country maternity teams rolled out a digital platform to engage with frontline staff and use their feedback to improve patient experience, following a three-year partnership between the Black Country Local Maternity and Neonatal System and ImproveWell.