The Challenge

Communication within such a large organisation is both difficult and challenging, and the NHS required a method to more efficiently engage with both employees and patients. Wirefast was tasked with streamlining internal work flow processes. This included better notifications of shift covers, alerting nurses and doctors of emergency situations and notifications to patients of appointments, allowing for better interaction with local health authorities.

The Solution

Utilising the Wirefast platform, NHS employees are able to send outbound SMS messages directly to colleagues and patients via desktop and application-based systems.

Wirefast also created a keyword, two-way conversational structure, by which patients are able to reply to appointment reminders and confirm, change or cancel appointments – improving the patient “journey” through the NHS system. A single patient “no-show” costs over £100, and by creating this new form of patient engagement, the NHS has been able to reduce such costs by 50%.

All of the messaging is done on a secure basis and delivers confirmation and notification of receipt, fulfilling the NHS’s requirements. The NHS also use Wirefast Fax for orders on blood transfusion units which are time critical and need to have notification on whether the order/message was received.

About NHS

Since its launch in 1948, the National Health Service (NHS) has grown to become the world’s largest publicly funded health service. It remains free at the point of use. The NHS currently employs more than 1.7m people, including 120,000 hospital doctors, 40,000 General Practitioners (GPs), 400,000 nurses and 25,000 ambulance staff.