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Primary Care

Clinical Review Questionnaires

Riccardo Garavani  | 29th June 2020

Practices manage significant numbers of patients with long term conditions (LTCs e.g. asthma, contraceptive pill review, COPD etc). These patients are required to be reviewed on a periodic basis to ensure their conditions are being managed, and that they are not deteriorating.

How can eConsult help manage long term condition patients?

eConsult has developed clinical review questionnaires that will allow patients to provide information ahead or instead of their review appointment.

Clinical review questionnaires are shorter than other eConsults, so patients who need to submit reviews can do so quickly and safely.

The following review questionnaires are now available to all practices:

  • Asthma
  • Depression and Anxiety (added 2021)
  • Diabetes
  • Blood pressure review
  • COPD
  • Thyroid
  • Contraceptive pill review
  • Medication review

How to use reviews for managing patients with chronic conditions

You should follow the same process as you currently do to identify which patients on your clinical system are due a regular review.

Once you have identified your group of patients, you can now send them an invitation to complete an online review via the appropriate eConsult questionnaire.

You can send the link to the appropriate review questionnaire as part of an email or text. Once you have received the eConsult review from your patient, you can then decide:

  • If they need an appointment (e.g. to carry out any other tests in person)
  • How urgently the patient needs the appointment
  • The length of the appointment
  • Which clinician/ type of appointment is needed

When a patient completes a review questionnaire, their confirmation email will always include links and information about how they can continue to manage their condition.

Increase your uptake of annual reviews with online questionnaires

A practice in Cornwall sent 100 texts to their asthmatic patients during ‘QOF season’. In less than one week they received 96 completed asthma eConsult review questionnaires. This cohort of patients had previously been sent letters by the practice inviting them for their annual review but they had ignored them. Texting the direct link makes it much easier for patients to complete.

We used to post letters to patients inviting them for pre-scheduled asthma review appointments but it wasn’t a successful tactic, meaning we ended up with high DNA rates for these appointments. Now we text patients a link to the asthma review questionnaire. We’ve seen that patients are happy to complete this through eConsult. Similarly, stable mental health patients who request repeat prescriptions can complete PHQ-9 and GAD-7 questionnaires through eConsult.

Dr Vasu Siva, Hillview Surgery