The Royal Free Hospital in North West London has used funds from the NHS Innovation Fund to implement an out-of-hours automated booking service.
Using text messaging for their Genito- Urinary Medicine (GUM) and Sexual Health clinics to provide a confidential 24 hour appointment service.
The application has been developed by Softcare Medical, a London-based software developer, and Healthcare Management Services Company with the assistance of Avanquest, the developer of the software, and Computer Communications.
Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) and Sexual Health clinics specialise in the management and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. Most also provide chlamydia screening and family planning services and are now, under recent Department of Health directives, required to offer all patients appointments within 48 hours.
However, many patients are unable or unwilling to call or visit their local clinic during working hours, or, if they do, cannot get through telephone queues quickly enough.
Special features include automatic booking of appointments over a 48-hour period and SMS text messaging to dedicated numbers. Patients can also make bookings using the Internet.
Patients are given a number to text and callers are offered three appointments over 48 hours by text. The patient responds by selecting the most convenient appointment, which is confirmed by text with a booking reference.
The system operates in two modes: A manually operated 24 hour booking service, which is operated by call centre and/or text message. In this mode, the system can provide a comprehensive booking service for all future appointments, which may be booked by phone call, text message or using the Internet. Booked appointments and available slots are uploaded from the system to the clinic software each half day.
The second mode is as an automated out of hours booking service. The service operates when the clinic is closed by making available slots over the following 48-hour period available by SMS booking or the Internet. Booked appointments and available slots are uploaded from the system to the clinic software at the start and end of each working day.
