How we improved our appointment system with Care Opinion feedback

My name is Uzo Chukwunonye and I am the Deputy Practice Manager at the Lawson Practice. I lead projects to improve our services and respond to patient feedback and complaints. We value our patients’ opinions and use Care Opinion to hear what they think about us and how we can do better.

One of the main issues that our patients faced was getting an appointment in the morning. Our old system required patients to call us at 8 am, which resulted in a rush and a shortage of appointments by 9 am. Many patients complained about this and expressed their frustration. However, they also praised the quality of care they received from our GPs once they got an appointment. They liked our clinicians, but not our booking process.

We wanted to change that and make it easier and safer for our patients to access our services. In 2021, we conducted a study that showed that 26% of appointments booked with GPs were not appropriate for their needs. They could have been seen by other health professionals such as physiotherapists, physician associates, or pharmacists. We also found that most patients preferred to contact us by phone rather than online or in person. We realised that we needed to update our appointment system to reflect the changes in GP practices and offer more options and flexibility to our patients. GP practices have evolved. Nowadays, there are not only more ways to get an appointment but also more health experts you may be able to see. And you might not always see a doctor first, because additional health care staff have been introduced into GP surgeries. You may be offered an appointment with a physiotherapist, paramedic or nurse practitioner.

In late 2021, we joined a Demand and Capacity Pilot and in late 2022, we implemented a new appointment system called total triage. In this system, all patient requests are assessed by a senior GP who decides the best course of action for them. They either resolve the request themselves or refer the patient to the most suitable service or clinician. A reception staff then contacts the patient and informs them of the plan. Most patient requests are resolved this way within 24 hours. We also introduced a new online consultation platform on our website, which gave patients another way to reach us and fill out a form with their details and concerns.

Our patients quickly gave us feedback on Care Opinion about the new appointment system. Some of the initial feedback was about the lack of information and guidance on how to use the new system and the online forms. Some patients thought that the online form was the only way to contact us, while others found it too long and complex. Care Opinion helped us identify these issues and address them promptly. We added more information on our website, trained our staff more, changed our phone message to give more options, and contacted the company that designed the online forms to make them shorter and simpler. We also conducted a poll to measure the impact of these changes and monitored Care Opinion for more feedback.

As we continued to improve the appointment system based on patient feedback on Care Opinion, we noticed that it started to work better for everyone: patients, admin staff, and clinicians. We received fewer complaints about the appointment system and more compliments about our team’s care and compassion.

Read some of the patients stories about The Lawson Practice booking system on Care Opinion