Mckenzie Group Practice
eConsult Case Study
Key stats
- Patient List size: 18,900
- Launched: 15th October 2018
- Model: Routine Clinic
Key messages:
- We spread out eConsults among our different clinicians so they take the ones most appropriate for them – it also helps us manage workload on busy days
- Team members who were enthusiastic volunteered to act as practice champions, but we work as a team to constantly review and tweak our processes
- eConsult has become our go-to signposting alternative – even if we have to help patients fill them out over the phone
Single biggest benefit: At Mckenzie Group Practice we’re now able to provide our busy patients with a more convenient way to help them, whilst spreading the work across our clinical team
McKenzie Group Practice is a very proactive but large practice so eConsult was the perfect solution to allow us to add another offering for our patients. Lots of our patients find it hard to contact us during working hours so we wanted something to complement our other online services. It’s gone down really well with our patients and we haven’t had any hiccups in setting it up.
We have dedicated administrative staff that triage the eConsults that come in, and these are members of the team that were interested and volunteered to look after the eConsult workflow process. We did lots of work as a team to make sure we set up eConsult well and thought through how to implement it for our needs. Our staff became our champions and we gave them the messages to give to patients with every interaction.
“We’ve made sure to review and be flexible with our eConsult process to get it right and make sure it keeps working for us and our patients.”
Practice Manager
We wanted to make sure eConsult fit into our normal workflow. We decided that we’d keep a certain number of appointments available each day, which our patients can book through the reception team or online. Only children and elderly patients go straight on the duty doctor’s list for the day, with everyone else completing an eConsult – even if it means the reception team help them to complete the form over the telephone. Now, eConsult is the first sign-posting offering for the reception team as we usually don’t have appointments available until a few weeks away.
Our eConsult admin member books in eConsults into slots as they come in – which clinician they book it to depends on the nature of the request. Then if the clinicians needs the reception team to action something for the patient they send it back to them. If we’re a clinician down each person adds an extra few to their list for the day but it means we can better manage our workload. We gets lots of eConsults in over the weekend so we have an extra clinician on a Monday morning to help us be able to respond to requests.
“This service allows you to complete a full report on your condition and provide specific issues for review to ensure that the notes are properly reviewed by a medical professional. This service allows you to direct your concerns appropriately. Excellent service!”
Patient
