Portsmouth Hospitals are rolling out digital appointment letters across Outpatients after a successful proof of concept pilot. When trialled within Gastroenterology, up to 52% of patients chose to receive their NHS appointment letter straight to their smartphone!

Patient feedback has been fantastic, including: “I think it’s a great idea, really easy to use and I like the link to mobile calendar.”

In September 2017, digital appointment letters will be issued to all outpatients who have a mobile number registered with the hospital. If the digital letter is not accessed within 48 hours or no mobile number is held with the hospital, then a postal letter is automatically sent and the digital letter is deleted.

How it works?

The Patient Portal is highly secure, accessed by a unique link and 4-digit PIN. As well as the appointment date and time, the letter also includes clinic specific instructions, essential reading and hospital information as attachments. Patients no longer have to search through a wad of paper to prepare for their appointment and can click on this info at anytime!

Making hospital communications easier for patients

Patient can:

  • Access their appointment info anytime and anywhere by smartphone, tablet and desktop – details can be emailed and printed off too!
  • Cancel/rebook/confirm appointments with 1 click! By making it easy, patients are more likely to communicate intentions, releasing appointments for waiting list patients.
  • Add the appointment directly into the their digital calendar to reduce the risk of forgetting and make sure their treatment stays on track.
  • Work out travel plans with a live home to hospital Google map with real time travel times
  • Add speech, reading and translation options to digital text. Letter content can be viewed in 98 languages!
  • Receive hospital communications by their preference; patients less confident with technology will still receive the traditional postal letter.

Rather than having to wait for letters to arrive or rebook by phone, digital delivery is instant and patients can now see and control their appointments at the touch of a button.

Trust benefits

For the Trust, huge cost savings are made on post, print, paper and associated admin costs, as well as a reduction in translation costs for leaflets in multiple languages. Patient open rates are also trackable; so the hospital now has a record of who received appointment communications.

With an appointment booking system now responsive to patients’ ‘on the go’ lifestyles, there is potential to further reduce non-attendance and wasted appointments too; meaning patients can be seen quicker and services run more efficiently.

Experience it how a patient would! For a demo sent straight to your mobile, get in touch: twebb@healthcomm.uk