A higher standard of out-of-hours care
While recent press reports have painted a less than positive picture
of out-of-hours GP services, primary care services provider Harmoni is
setting a higher standard, consistently meeting the national standard
for triaging callers with an urgent requirement within 20 minutes.
Harmoni, which works for 10 primary care trusts in the UK, has met
national standards for its call handling and triage service in 97.9% of
cases in the past year. Since fully meeting the national standard
requires only 95% compliance — and this standard has been met, according
to press reports, by only 8% of PCTs — the firm’s performance is
exceptional.
“Accurate assessment in rapidly identifying and categorising callers’
conditions is fundamental to an efficient and effective out-of-hours
service”, says Harmoni CEO Andrew Gardner (pictured). “Our protocols not
only give the call handler the ability to clearly identify those
patients in need of emergency hospital care, but also determine the
caller’s condition — whether it be life threatening, urgent or
otherwise.
“In this way we can stream patients to appropriate services such as
pharmacy or NHS Direct and also offer advice on repeat prescribing and
emergency contraception, for in-stance, without any need for clinical
intervention.”
The Hertfordshire-based company now delivers healthcare to more than
5% of the population, making it one of the largest primary care
providers in the UK.
Source: bjhc&im May 2007
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