With a continuous requirement to communicate with patients, the practice needed to optimise its processes to enhance how their communications were produced and sent, along with improving resource management. With an ageing population and specific patient cohorts opting for letters as their communication preference, the surgery required an alternative process for sending printed mail.
Previously managed in-house, the new processes needed to be streamlined, cost effective and time-sensitive, whilst being compatible with the SystemOne clinical system.
Docmail is an online hybrid mail solution that enables practices to manage and send printed mail from their desktop. The solution is powerful, flexible and offers impressive time and cost savings, whilst providing the ability to send single or bulk mailings in just a few clicks.
The solution offers an extension called the print driver that’s specifically designed for the NHS. It acts as a virtual printer, allowing practices to send documents directly from a clinical system, whilst reporting back to the patient record.
The Docmail print driver was downloaded onto a number of PC’s within the surgery during the set up phase. In addition to this, a range of letter templates were converted to be compatible with Docmail’s document recognition software; this included amending the address field and print margin area. Initial training was provided, that offered the practice team an overview of the whole system and the ability to ask any questions about the solutions’ capabilities.
The process is now simple. Within SystemOne, letters and leaflets are selected within the patient record and printed straight to the Docmail print diver. By enabling the merge mode functionality, the practice can easily send mail merges and bulk mailings direct from SystemOne to Docmail. With the use of pre-agreed print options, known as print profiles, to further speed up the process, mailings are swiftly sent to patients to provide information and grow patient awareness.
Letters including referrals, results, appointment, home blood pressure, information and practice updates are now sent through Docmail, to a range of patient cohorts, throughout the year.
Utilising the Docmail print driver to send print and post has enabled the Menston and Guiseley Practice to easily keep patients up to date, through the streamlined sending of printed communications.
The solution has provided impressive time savings; with the SystemOne compatibility, the practice can send communications with ease. Single and bulk mailings can be printed on demand, providing a flexible and easy to use approach to managing letters and leaflets. The clinical system compatibility also allows a reference to be placed against the patient record, to aid with reporting.
The practice has reported significant cost savings, helping to achieve the rolling NHS goal of reducing costs.
The process is extremely reliable. It’s as easy as sending items to an office printer, but you know that the letter will reach the end patient.
A support team are on hand to provide assistance and guidance when required as well as further support from Serena Schofield, a Business Development Manager, who is always on hand to answer any questions.
Since the adoption of Docmail, the practice has sent a total of 19,990 mailings to 42,907 addresses, helping drive positive engagement with their patients and management population health.
The practice has identified that print and post will remain a vital channel of communication within their surgery, due to their patient demographic and the communications they send.
‘The Docmail print driver enables us to manage and send printed communications to our patients. Whilst we utilise a blended approach to drive engagement, we have identified that print and post will remain vital for particular demographics and communications and the print driver streamlines this process.
The solution is easy to use, provides time savings and helps us save money that can be reinvested into other frontline care activities. The compatibility with SystemOne is extremely beneficial and I would recommend the use of Docmail to anyone.’
Abigial Firth, Secretary,
The Menston And Guiseley Practice
