A new digital partnership empowering platform integration has been announced by Healthcare Communications and Servelec.

For healthcare providers, this will enable the live flow of patient correspondence between Healthcare Communications number one patient engagement portal and Servelec’s leading EPR platform, Rio.

With interoperability seen as a critical success factor for a sustainable healthcare future, the partnership will not only deliver significant cost and time efficiencies, which can be re-directed to patient care, but also support achieving a digital health ecosystem by removing data silos.

Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BHNFT), a recognised leader in NHS digital maturity, are the first to go live with the integration in November 2021. As one of only seven mental health trusts to be selected for the Global Digital Exemplar programme in 2017, BHNFT’s mission is to become world-leading in the use of IT through cutting-edge innovations.

Sophie Trezise, GDE Benefits Realisation Lead at Berkshire said “We will be channelling all of our patient correspondence through the Patient Portal and enabling the system to import patient responses directly into our EPR, Rio. This is one of our major objectives and will be a game changer for us in terms of engagement with patients and patient ownership of their care.”

Once deployed at scale, the trust won’t need to use their data warehouse anymore, with all information being captured directly from the source in real time, creating significant future savings in infrastructure.

Over 5 million patients have logged into Healthcare Communications patient portal, which enables instant access to important health information including appointment letters, directly from digital devices. With 1 tap, patients can confirm, cancel or rebook appointments which is then reported back into Rio in real time.

Kenny, MD at Healthcare Communications spoke about the impact on patient experience: ’Interoperability in healthcare helps to bring technologies together to improve patient satisfaction, care, and outcomes. The integration with RIO will enable patient feedback to be updated in real time, including, and not limited to appointment notifications, patient self-scheduling and outcomes from eforms. Interoperability is critical to delivering patient centric care, whilst enhancing the patient experience with quicker informed decision making.’

Tej Chaggar, Head of Partner Relationships at Servelec, said: “Partnering with Healthcare Communications is part of our portal provision and interoperability strategy and means that our customers can choose an integrated portal solution. This allows appointment management for patients and trusts in an effective way, saving time and money for the trusts which they can repurpose elsewhere whilst providing improved access to services for patients, as well as an improved patient experience.”

 

About Healthcare Communications

Founded in 2000, Healthcare Communications is the leading provider of patient communication services in the UK healthcare market – working with more than 130 NHS organisations and delivering 120 million secure patient communications a year.

It supports digitally-driven, patient-led NHS communications that improve engagement, boost appointment attendances and increase patient satisfaction levels. It helps the NHS interact with all patients across multiple channels, according to their individual preferences (such as via its digital portal, SMS, IVR, telephone and post).

Healthcare Communications is now part of Webex by Cisco.

 

About Servelec

Servelec provides leading software to the care sector that makes a positive difference to thousands of lives every day. A trusted supplier to more than 45 NHS trusts and over 150 local authorities, its mission is to connect communities through joined up digital care for social care, healthcare, education and youth services.

Servelec’s key offerings:

  • Electronic Patient Record (EPR) for mental health, community and child health settings
  • Fully integrated social care case management solutions for Adults, Children’s and Finance on a single platform
  • Children’s Services Early Years and education management solution
  • Patient Administration System (PAS) and patient flow bed management solution for acute care
  • Fully web-based, single database solution for Integrated Youth Support
  • Cloud-based interoperability solutions to help deliver an integrated approach to care

Servelec is already working with customers to share data across care settings, supporting the Government-backed interoperability agenda and move towards integrated care.

In August 2021, Servelec was acquired by The Access Group.