Devon Sexual Health boosts patient access with Inform Health
Patients in Devon are being empowered to self-manage aspects of their sexual health following the successful implementation of Inform Health’s electronic patient record (EPR) system, and the patient facing Personal Health Record (PHR), across Devon Sexual Health Services.
Developed to meet the service’s bespoke needs and replace three separate EPR systems in use across multiple clinics, Inform technology is now live at the Exeter and Barnstaple clinics, with Torbay expected to follow suit early this year. It is expected that the digital transformation project will not only improve patient access and autonomy but deliver significant efficiency savings for the service.
Initially, the PHR will empower people in Devon to book and amend appointments for contraception, sexual health, and HIV services online quickly and conveniently. Longer term, the service expects to use the PHR to enable patients to self-manage other aspects of their sexual health, including contraception and STI testing by post and self-taken histories.
Dr Jack Shaw, consultant physician in Genitourinary and HIV Medicine, Devon Sexual Health, explains:
“Allowing appropriate patients to self-manage low risk aspects of their sexual health brings obvious benefits in terms of providing greater choice, autonomy and convenience, while freeing up clinic capacity for more complex patients. Like all services, we’re facing huge demand and it’s essential that making an appointment doesn’t form a barrier to people accessing the care they need.
Our initial concept for the PHR was to create a digital receptionist and this meant matching PHR’s algorithms with the way our reception staff work and making sure our triage process was able to allocate appropriate patients to appropriate appointments to optimise clinic resources. It’s been a complex task but the team at Inform Health have been helpful and honest. We’ve approached this implementation as one team and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved together so far.
As an integrated sexual health service with a HIV clinic and psychological therapy offering, we needed a system that could not only make accessing appointments quick and easy for patients now but one that speaks to all facets of our patient offering. PHR’s scalability will future-proof our service in line with the digital direction of travel of the local commissioning strategy – something we knew was impossible with our incumbent system.”
Susan Bunn, commercial director at Inform Health, comments:
“We’re delighted that Devon Sexual Health has chosen Inform’s PHR to underpin its patient self-management journey. We look forward to seeing the service develop the system to enable them to respond to their key challenges, promote excellence in patient care and support service efficiency”
