Case study: Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust

Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) purchased eConsult so that all 735,000 Lincolnshire residents could access community services and connect to healthcare professionals via video consultations.

When the findings from the pilot were extrapolated across the Clinical Assessment Service (CAS), Q health was found to potentially save the Trust £4,000 a month in-home visits, £35,750 in monthly base appointments and £6,020 in labour time, leading to monthly savings of £42,000.

Both patients and clinicians were highly satisfied with the technology. The patients that took part in the pilot rated the service 4.7/5 and every clinician who used the service indicated that they would use the service again in the future, rating it the same as patients.

“Saved me having to travel and was able to have the consultation in my own home for something that was easy to diagnose and treat without hassle.”

Lincolnshire CAS patient

One example of a service area using eConsult‘s video and telephone service after the wider rollout is the LCHS Child Therapy team, which carried out over 8,700 video consultations over a 15 month period. Respondents stated that 48% of the video consultations prevented home visits and 87% prevented a face-to-face appointment.

Susan Ombler, Director of Nursing, Allied Health Professionals and Operations for LCHS said: “We are delighted to enter into this partnership. This exciting new service will allow us to deliver great care for patients, close to home.”

“By utilising the latest technology in addition to traditional face to face treatment, we are increasing choice and removing the stress and inconvenience of travel from our patients. As the NHS continues to make the best use of available technology, it is only right that LCHS is at the forefront of implementing innovative technology that will improve access to healthcare in a rural county such as Lincolnshire.”

eConsult now allows clinicians to quickly switch between video and telephony consultations, meaning even more patients can benefit from remote consultations. In particular, this feature helps patients who don’t feel confident using video consultations. The easy switch between these two different modalities can encourage patients to give video consultations a try, but also works flexibly for those who aren’t able or willing to.

References: Digital Health.London, HealthTech News, Digital Health.


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