Primary Care IT: Leading the way in delivering patient outcomes, income for practices and savings for the NHS
Executive Summary:
Primary Care IT has experienced a busy year as GP the world has moved out of COVID recovery and back to business as usual. With the receipt of end-of-year contract reports, it is an opportune time to reflect on the activities and outcomes we have accomplished. This blog post highlights some key achievements of our own and others that ICBs, federations, PCNs and practices have delivered by using our tools.
Key influencers in the development of contractual business rules and reporting
In the last contract year, PCNs using our IIF toolset benefitted from accurate and up to date reporting on performance as well as simple actionable lists to achieve the indicators. As a team Primary Care IT were pleased to engage with and help to feedback on the IIF indicators to the national NHS digital team as well as both major Primary Care EHR suppliers to ensure practices had workable resources that were accurate no matter their origin (benefiting both subscribers and non-subscribers alike). Our agile and adaptable approach meant that any new business rules were reflected within our tools and Analytics platforms within a week of release.
Improving care for patients, income for practices/PCNs and achieving savings for the NHS
Use of the Primary Care IT Professional toolset with The Confederation, Hillingdon CIC, has demonstrated remarkable achievements in improving patient care, driving income for Practices and PCNs as well as generating substantial savings within the North West London Integrated Care System (ICS).
Primary Care IT undertook a range of activities to support the implementation of the toolset:
- Set up bespoke practice alerts and provided templates within clinical systems to highlight patients requiring action for Enhanced Services delivery.
- Introduced innovative practice dashboards on the OneAnalytics platform to monitor progress, highlight potential income, and aid resource allocation decision-making.
- Provided practices with unique patient level business intelligence to help them target their activity to best achieve targets
- Assigned facilitators to work with PCNs, assisting in navigating the platform and developing plans.
The Primary Care IT toolset has generated significant benefits for Hillingdon and the wider ICS region
- Across all Enhanced Services, Practices and PCNs benefitted from timely, accurate and complete business intelligence, including not only performance monitoring but also actionable worklists, enabling timely interventions and optimised patient care.
Case Study: CCMI and Mental Health Enhanced Service
- Financial Savings: The implementation of CCMI/Mental Health Enhanced Services resulted in substantial savings, including £5,360.51 in primary care savings, £17,868.38 in mental health savings, and a total savings of £20,250.83.
- Improved Patient Care:
- For SMI:
- PCNs completed physical health checks in 83% of patients, surpassing the regional average of 57%. This led to an additional 596 patients benefiting from comprehensive physical health checks (including 20 key data points).
- Replicated across the ICS an additional 6621 patients could have had annual health checks. It would also realise £59,584.61 of primary care savings, £198,615.38 of mental health savings and £225,097.43 of total savings.
- For CCMI:
- The PCNs completed physical health checks in 82% of patients compared to 62% across NW London ICS practices. This meant an additional 210 patients benefitted from a complete physical health check (including 20 key data points).
- Replicated across the ICS an additional 1438 patients could have had health checks.
- For SMI:
Case Study: Non-Diabetic Hyperglycaemia (NDH) Enhanced Service
- Improved detection of NDH: The PCNs in Hillingdon achieved a NDH/Diabetes ratio of 1.62 compared to 1.22 across NW London ICS practices. This led to a wider number of patients being appropriately diagnosed with Non Diabetic Hyperglycaemia and therefore benefitting from regular check-ups and screening.
- Increased Health Check Rates: PCNs achieved a 52% health check completion rate for patients with NDH, surpassing the regional average of 50%. This translated into an additional 701 patients receiving health checks compared to the expected rate.
- Financial Gains: Hillingdon PCNs achieved 88% against maximum funding available compared to 76% across the ICS leading to an additional income of £73,704.68, demonstrating the effectiveness of Primary Care IT toolsets in maximizing funding opportunities.
Case Study: Diabetes Enhanced Service
- Enhanced Performance and Savings: PCNs achieved impressive results, with 90% of diabetes targets met compared to the regional average of 77%. This led to substantial financial savings of £453,311 for the NHS. If replicated across the region, these savings could amount to £3,718,346.
- Financial gains: Hillingdon PCNs achieved additional income of £145,542 compared to practices in the NW London ICS for the Diabetes Enhanced Service. This increased revenue has a positive impact on the allocation of resources and funding for patient care
- Improved Quality of Life: Meeting the three treatment targets resulted in an additional 656 healthy years of life for diabetics in Hillingdon. If extended across the region, it could result in an additional 5,379 years of healthy life.
Successful rollout and excellent feedback from an ICS customer
Our professional toolset was deployed across a large ICS footprint, where many providers had previously been using a competitor product. In keeping with our core values of helping to achieve enhanced care for patients and make lives easier for practice teams, we undertook a wide variety of engagement activities to ensure optimal uptake and hence benefit from use of the toolset.
This work was recognised with feedback from participants within the ICS region which further emphasises the benefits of the Primary Care IT toolset:
- Valuable resource: 81% of respondents stated that the PCIT tools are valuable ongoing resources for their organisations, benefiting various roles and practices.
- Time-saving: Overall 67% of respondents believed that the tools save time for themselves or their colleagues/organisation. This time-saving aspect contributes to increased efficiency and productivity in daily operations. Key users who found benefit were:
- 100% of GPs said the PCIT tools saved them more than an hour a week
- 80% of nurses said that the tools saved more than an hour per week.
- 100% or ARRS staff said that the tools saved more than an hour per week.
- Positive support and coordination: Participants praised the PCIT team for their positive, approachable, and knowledgeable approach. They appreciated the team’s understanding of practice and PCN needs, with the local PCIT coordinator receiving particular acclaim for their responsiveness and query management.
