Virtual lipid lowering management
Outcomes and learning
Outcomes
The new communication aid brought substantial benefits, including:
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Time saving. Among the cohort of 148 patients, 47 patients (32%) opted for a statin by responding by text message. This saved 47 routine consultation appointments.
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Cost saving. The reduction in GP appointments led to a cost saving of £1,880.
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Profit generation. The initiative contributed significantly towards our GP practice meeting the quality and outcomes framework (QOF) targets for CHOL003 (14 points) and CHOL004 (16 points) which brought in income of £6,390.
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Sustainability. The initiative resulted in reduced patient travel, used no paper handouts, and optimised resource use.
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Our practice has been ranked first out of the NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care board (ICB) practices in 5 cardiovascular disease indicators (CVDP010CHOL, CVDP009CHOL, CVDP006CHOL, CVDP003CHOL and CVDP008CHOL). This is according to data collated by the ICB from the national primary care Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Audit (CVDPREVENT).
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Our surgery was awarded a certificate of innovation by Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership and Surrey County Council.
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We had positive patient and healthcare professional feedback.
Learning
The following factors helped ensure the success of the initiative:
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it was a willing patient cohort, supported by our patient participation group (PPG)
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our staff are dynamic and adapted quickly to the change
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our medical staff are technologically savvy and confident in front of the camera.
Because the initiative was successful, we have permanently implemented it. These pathways are now cemented into our workflow.
We have since refined our cholesterol treatment pathways. We now also include our dispensary staff in the workflow, and we ask them to send out the educational packs to selected patients. We have also added another arm to the pathway by making a similar video for inclisiran.
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