Airedale Doctor Explores New Way of Communicating with Patients
Mobile phones are now considered an essential by many. We organise our
lives with them: we get texts telling us about the next train and bus times,
the latest news headlines and football scores. Now, patients across the country
are starting to receive texts about their next doctor's appointment.
A GP surgery in Bradford & Airedale tPCT is pioneering the use of patient
text messages from SystmOne. Holycroft Surgery is saving time and money and
giving patients peace of mind - just by sending a simple text.
Dr John Parry, a GP at Holycroft Surgery, and TPP's Clinical Director, says, "Texting
patients is a great idea. I've had very favourable feedback from patients,
including those who have received information about test results by text.
As a practice, we will be closely monitoring the benefits and are looking
forward to the cost savings brought about by reducing the number of patients
who miss their appointments."
It's not all about patients remembering their appointments - through SystmOne,
GP surgeries can send texts about test results, they can let patients know
about any new clinics they're running - in short, they can send a text about
almost anything! And, as with all communications between doctor and patient,
the information in the text message is saved in the patient's record.
Holycroft Surgery was the first GP practice to use SystmOne back in 1999.
Since then, they've been pushing the boundaries of what the system can achieve.
As a forward-thinking and technology-embracing team, looking for new ways
to communicate with patients, they were delighted to trial the new text messaging
functionality.
SystmOne text messaging will soon be rolled out to all 550 GP practices across
England and Wales using the system.
Look out for more information on the benefits of texting on this website - we
aim to produce a case study as the use of texting becomes more widespread!
