"Before we discovered Practice Unbound we were facing challenges similar to a lot of Practices with an increasing amount of workload. Both in terms of clinical pressures but also administrative and documentation - with an increasing amount of patient letters coming through, and having to spend more and more time on non-clinical roles within the Practice.
"We had looked at various ways of trying to reduce this by designing a system ourselves within the Practice. But we were constantly being restrained by time to find to make that process work and also making sure it was a safe process that would work for all."
"So when we started looking at the Workflow Optimization program one of the key features we were looking for was the safety and the clinical governance behind it.
"We were very impressed with the structure of the program, the way that Practice Unbound supported and implemented the training both for the clinical GP lead and for the wider administrative team. I also liked the fact that all of the work that is done is underpinned by regular reporting and auditing to ensure the safe standards are being met.
"Also, the Practice Unbound team were very good at supporting that work within the Practice helping us understand how to use it and how to make sure that the processes were being done safely."
"The main benefits that we've seen as GPs since implementing is a reduction in the volume of documents that we are having to deal with on a daily basis. Since we've introduced Workflow we have managed to increase our patient appointment length from a standard 10 minute appointment up to 12 minute appointments.
"We've also been able to release this time into modernising the Practice in other ways such as a digital online triage system. Without the time released by the Workflow program we would have struggled to do this. "
Practice Manager Jackie Paul said "Before using Workflow, the Administrators and scanners had to manually input all the letters to the GPs. That would have meant screening letters that were completely normal, letters that were telling us that the patient had not attended a clinic, and these were letters that didn't really need to go to the GP but were.
"We find the e-learning process really straightforward. It is great. You could do it anytime that suits you. Whether that be in a five minutes at work or at home on the tablet. And by being able to log into the dashboards we could see how the staff were progressing through the modules. They took it at their own pace and we could see when they were ready to start with the Workflow process. "
Workflow Administrator Amanda says "When we were first told that Workflow was going to be implemented it was quite nerve wracking in terms of the risk associated with completing letters that the GP would then never see. It was exciting as well to be given the opportunity and the responsibility of doing that work and especially considering the expansion of skills that would come along with that.
"The training focuses on specific letter types and takes you through the basic parts of the letter that you need to check - the date of birth, address, Then the training goes onto specific details of that letter, like the important information that you would need to pull out and give to a GP, like medication changes, any diagnosis that had been given, and so was good that it gave a comprehensive list of everything that we had to be looking for when we were going to be doing this on our own.
"At the moment we process DNA letters, A&E letters, screenings (that could be bowel or breast screening), we do cardiology letters ENT, psychiatry, hematology, orthopedic, physiotherapy. I think at the moment we're just about to introduce General Surgery letters as well."
Workflow Administrator Sarah says "When we found out that the GPs were going to implement the Workflow training programme I volunteered straight away. I really felt it was something that I could do well. We were anxious as in some of the letters we are the first people and the only people that read those letters. But with the help from the GPs, especially Dr McLaughlin, and with the Workflow auditing process that really gave us the confidence that we needed to carry out this work.
"The ultimate goal is to reduce the GP workloads. It does give us a good feeling that we can help with that. I think it improves their experience and they can give more time to maybe the patients themselves that come in for consultations."
Kris McLaughlin says "The online training program is really well prepared and very easy to access. What we liked about it is it did not assume that people already had a basic level of knowledge of how to safely deal with documents that were coming into the Practice.
"The Practice Unbound program also has an online module for more advanced letter types which helps once the program's initially established and builds additional confidence when there the complexity of the letter starts to increase.
"I found that was a really useful module to sit down and do all together. So we sat as a group and worked through that module, all six of us. That was really useful because it showed how letters that come from the hospital can be ambiguous at times, they can have conflicting information, and it helped us discuss in detail how the team would deal with that. And that's proven really successful when I've taken on the more challenging letter types."
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