Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust has been shortlisted for the HSJ awards in the Digitising Patient Services Initiative category for the digital outpatient follow up project.

 These awards celebrate excellence in health and care. The Digitising Patient Services Initiative category recognises the new national focus on the value of technology in healthcare and celebrates initiatives that put more control in the hands of patients and enable care providers to provide a comprehensive service.

The project was initiated and supported by EMAHSN as an outcome of our Long Term Conditions Innovation Exchange, where regional health and care stakeholders agreed that reducing outpatient appointments was a priority. The key aim of the project was to improve experience for patients.

NUH agreed to take part in the demonstrator and the initial pilot has been undertaken over the last year in three of their clinical specialties; Breast services, Oncology and Trauma and Orthopaedics.

NUH introduced bespoke questionnaires to establish the necessity of outpatient appointments to save patients attending unnecessary hospital appointments, which has had a large impact on patient experience and satisfaction.

An example of the impact of the project on patient experience is from the Oncology clinical specialty (for patients who have had or are undergoing radiotherapy treatment for cancer) where patients are normally required to attend hospital every three weeks. By using a bespoke clinical questionnaire, specialists were able to establish that 70% of the patients didn’t need a face to face visit. Now that the system is live, patients who are suitable for a digital pathway are able to complete the questionnaire at home. –This has enabled these patients to avoid unnecessary hospital appointments and enabled the trust to see more patients that did require follow ups more quickly. This is particularly useful for NUH patients who have to travel from across the East Midlands region. In a presentation delivered about digital outpatient programmes, NHS Improvement estimated the average cost to a patient of attending outpatient appointments as £50 or more – based on the HMRC’s research paper ‘costing customer time’.

Lisa Lawrence, Paperless Hospital Programme Manager at NUH said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for Digitising Patient Services Initiative, recognising the collaborative efforts and dedication of our staff members over the last 12 months to successfully implement. We are committed to delivering improved outcomes for our patients, and to be chosen among the other incredible nominees is a wonderful achievement. This nomination recognises the importance of the project and has given the team a real boost. We’re grateful to EMAHSN for supporting the project and look forward to working collaboratively with them as we take the digital outpatient follow up initiative further.”

HSJ editor Alistair McLellan, commented: “We would like to congratulate Nottingham University Hospitals on being nominated in the category of Digitising Patient Services Initiative ahead of this year’s 2019 HSJ awards. We are looking forward to welcoming them to the ceremony in November, to join us in recognising the very best achievements and innovations in the healthcare sector. The entrants this year have been of incredible calibre, and each of the finalists in this category have been chosen based on their outstanding commitment to excellence in healthcare.”

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in November.

You can find out more about this demonstrator project here.