CSC helps cut patient referral times

A new strategic patient administration system  installed at a primary care trust in North Manchester has helped to slash the time taken for new referrals to be registered for podiatry clinics.

According to figures from  Computer Sciences Corportation (CSC), which installed the iSoft iPM patient administration system (PAS), North Manchester PCT has seen the average waiting time for a new podiatry referral has now dropped to average of three weeks where it had previously taken up to ten.

The PAS was implemented by local service provider the CSC Alliance, which is led by CSC, working with management consultants Hedra, as part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

Martin Lomax, CSC’s account director for Greater Manchester, told E-Health Insider: "The CSC Alliance approach is based on looking at the business processes being used and through the introduction of new systems giving the NHS the opportunity to improve their processes.

"Podiatry chose to use the introduction of new systems to change how they delivered services."

“The system appears to be bringing some benefits to our patients”, said Helene Gordon, deputy head of podiatry at the clinic, “not only have waiting times dropped dramatically, but patients are now able to choose dates and times that are suitable for them, which means we have fewer missed appointments."

The podiatry department operates by self-referral, where patients contact any clinic or health centre with a podiatry department within the PCT and request an appointment which is arranged for an agreed time and date by a bookings clerk.

"It was quite a long process to get an appointment which involved paper being moved between departments," explained Lomax. He said the new system provided "improved satisfaction to both staff and patients.

Before the new system was implemented patients would contact the local clinic, complete an application form and then the paperwork would be sent by a clerk to the podiatry department via internal mail.

Their details would then be logged onto the computer, the paper work sent back to the original clinic via internal mail. Clinics would then post out the next available appointment to the patient for assessment and treatment.

According to Lomax, following the introduction of the iSoft PAS, the podiatry department has been able to significantly streamline these processes. He told EHI this was down to three factors: "The availability of up-to-date patient information online, the availability of clinic information online including clinician’s electronic diaries, and the availability of all this information while the patient is on the phone."

North Manchester PCT is one of five PCTs in Manchester to receive an iPM PAS from CSC Alliance. North Manchester initially went live with the PAS in March 2005 and started to use the software in earnest from last July.

Lomax told EHI that the five PCTs are all running off one instance of the PAS, run out of a CSC Alliance data centre, which operates a single Master Patient Index (MPI). "We have an MPI of 2.7m patients covering the whole of Greater Manchester," said Lomax.

Lomax said that the main lesson learned from the project was that the business process mapping CSC and partners provide "is very important and can deliver spectacular results if organisations can grasp the opportunity".