Portsmouth signs deal for Patientxt

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has signed a deal with software supplier Healthcare Communications for its Patientxt messaging service in order to reduce its Did Not Attend rates.

Together with 02 and Voice Sage, the company will provide interactive text and voice messaging services to patients to remind them of their appointments and to reply in order to cancel appointments that they no longer need.

The contract will see 02 provide two-way messaging and a high level of audit and governance, which will enable the trust to see whether messages have been delivered to around 600,000 outpatients every year.

Portsmouth Hospitals outpatient project manager, Mandy Mugridge, said: "We are keen to reduce our DNA rate. That will reduce outpatient waiting times and increase performance against targets, such as national outpatients’ targets."

The Patientxt system is now used by more than 105 primary and secondary care trusts and has sent more than 15m messages since it was introduced in 2003.

Michael Cunningham, Healthcare Communications' director, said the company has significantly improved user preferences within the service over the years.

"This enables users to choose channels appropriate to their patient demographic such as text and voice with extensive reporting options.

"Additional reports have also been added in line with user feedback that ensures that benefits can be tracked," he added.

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Healthcare Communications