CLINICAL IT
Can we help eyecare referral management
see more clearly?
R
esearch tells us that healthcare providers have several common goals – all of which focus on enhancing patient care even further:
• Improve lines of communication between PCTs, secondary care and community care;
• Increase effi ciency of fl ow of patients referred from a general practitioner to a specialist / hospital;
• Ensure patients do not spend time in the system when they could be treated appropriately in the community at a faster rate.
Perhaps by listening to these comments, a good system can become truly great.
Generic referral management systems have been trialled in the past, but without expert clinical input, the results can be hit and miss. However, if there was a way to combine the latest technology with human rigour, the overall standard of patient care could be raised.
Rethought
If it was possible for referrals to be specifi cally tailored to local patient pathways and clinical thresholds, while also making
the most
effective use of secondary and community care, could we take some of the strain off hospital services?
With one clear goal in mind – improving patient care by streamlining the service – it should be possible for everyone involved to save both time and money.
Refi ned This is where evolutio comes in.
The individual elements – erefer (the referral standardisation process), ecare (the patient support programme), evaluate (the system which maximises the use of community care via Enhanced Service Optometrists) and ebill (an administrative support tool) – can all be installed quickly, without any drain on CCG manpower.
Upgraded
evolutio has a unique offer that combines the latest technology with the skill and expertise of local clinicians.
Broken into its component parts, evolutio is a number of tools that all work in harmony to the tailored requirements of the customer.
Above: Inbound evaluate outcomes shows what is happening to the referrals entering our system and which service provider they end up with.
shorten waiting times, support patients, enhance and maximise the use of community care and alleviate CCG administrative burden, all at a signifi cant cost saving to the NHS.
By driving change in the current referral system, it is possible to increase effi ciency while simultaneously enhancing the overall standard of care – it’s a win–win situation.
Currently, the lines of communication between primary, secondary and community care services are quite complex in this country. The present system works well, but can it be improved on? evolutio CEO Peter Price-Taylor, who has a BSc in Optical Management and a breadth of leadership in optometry business development, explains.
evolutio is a new system that provides an ophthalmic referral gateway, driving effi ciency by centralising and standardising all referrals. The complete evolutio infrastructure intends to work with local CCGs to reduce referrals,
The results can be seen almost straight away, with a successful trial in both Suffolk and Essex showing the difference evolutio can
make.The Suffolk pilot showed that our whole system considerably impacts hospital appointments, and hence substantially reduces costs to the local CCG (see line graph, bottom left).
What’s also interesting is that when clinicians know that their referrals are being studied and double-checked by a peer clinician, this results in more care being taken when making referrals. This improvement in standards at primary care level – combined with the enhanced services being offered by a community provider – contributes to the signifi cant reduction in hospital referrals.
The cumulative effect of evolutio is that
patient waiting times are also dramatically reduced. In Suffolk, for example, the intention is that all patients sent to the community are seen within two weeks.
Ultimately, the aim of evolutio is to improve patients’ experience of optical care,
and
ensure they receive the best clinical treatment, as quickly as possible. It offers a robust, specialised means of support that works collaboratively with CCGs to drive effi cient and effective optometry service provision, in line with the QIPP agenda.
Above: CP Outcome shows what happens to the referrals after they have been sent to an enhanced service optometrists and what proportion are then being discharged or sent to hospital.
Peter Price-Taylor FOR MORE INFORMATION
T: 0203 142 7755 E:
Info@evolutio.uk.com W:
www.evolutio.uk.com
national health executive Jul/Aug 12 | 49
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