Inhealthcare, a UK leader in digital health, has partnered with Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust to transform services.
The partnership between the Lincolnshire NHS Trust and Inhealthcare will implement a transformation programme to increase capacity at the provider’s busy community health operations centre
The NHS trust delivers community-based services to support people in managing their own health at home and reducing the need for hospital visits. It cares for thousands of people every day.
The operations centre receives referrals from GPs, hospitals, social services, care professionals and patients themselves and makes sure they are directed to the most appropriate service for individual needs.
Increasing capacity
Staff at the centre spend many hours fielding calls for other providers or following up information on incomplete referrals.
Inhealthcare is working with the trust to develop an easy-to-use online system for handling referrals that can be accessed by both patients and professionals. The streamlined system will enable operations centre staff to focus on their primary roles of guiding patients to the correct community health services.
Inhealthcare is creating digital referral forms for 10 services including diabetes, tissue viability, heart failure, Macmillan support, Parkinson’s disease and transitional care.
The new system is due to go live early in the new year.
Bryn Sage, chief executive of Inhealthcare, said: “Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust cares for thousands of people every day, supporting people to manage their health at home and reducing the need for hospital visits.
“We are thrilled to be working with the trust on this transformation programme to increase capacity at its busy operations centre and help the NHS to deliver more care to people living in the community.”
Tracy Pilcher, Director of Nursing, Allied Health Professions and Operations, said: “We are delighted to be working with Inhealthcare to create a new e-referral service for Lincolnshire.
“This new system will enhance the patient experience and improve the quality of service we provide.”
Inhealthcare digital toolkit
Inhealthcare has developed the digital toolkit to help NHS teams build their own digital health services for any area of care at scale, speed and low cost, and has worked with clinicians to build a library of more than 50 services to support long-term conditions including heart disease, lung disease, hypertension, diabetes, undernutrition and smoking cessation.
So far, it has rolled out digital health services in London, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Yorkshire and the North East, the North West, the Midlands, East Anglia and the Home Counties.
Inhealthcare offers communications channels that are inclusive for all patients, regardless of ability, including SMS, app, online, voice and Amazon Alexa.
Its deployed services are fully aligned with the technology element of the NHS Long Term Plan.
