We worked together to determine individual care pathways and optimal engagement which led to an improved service with better clinical outcomes for Lion Health patients in Dudley

Background

Patients with long-term conditions (LTCs) cost the NHS around £7 for every £10 spent. Despite its aim to provide quality care for its patients with LTCs, the Lion Health medical practice in Dudley reported that their engagement with health and care services was relatively poor. ​

Out of Lion Health’s 32,000 registered patients, approximately 9,000 have LTCs. Of these, 44 per cent struggle to attend their booked healthcare appointments. Missed appointments and the resulting health complications arising from a lack of engagement with the patient was costing Lion Health approximately £9,000 per week.​

Together with Lion Health, the Innovation Partnership between our Strategy Unit and technology provider PredictX sought to understand the rate of patient appointment attendance, why these patients were not attending their appointments and if there was a better way to engage with them. The aim was to leverage the electronic health record for all patients to define patient care pathways and predict attendance rates. Lion Health could then increase attendance rates, increase clinical productivity within clinics, reduce multiple visits for the same problem, and improve the population’s health through better clinical care.​

Action

Machine learning models were applied to Lion Health’s data to better understand its patients, their individual care pathways and the best ways to engage them.​

Impact

Lion Health is now able to: ​

• predict patient attendance rates​
• identify patients at risk of not attending their appointments and intervene to mitigate against this early on​
• understand the care pathway of these patients so that targeted care packages can be provided for them.​

​Once we understood each of these patients, we could seek to improve the services they receive as well as their interaction with the health and care system as a whole. These models are now enabling Lion Health to further develop solid, evidence-based, personalised interventions that will benefit both the patient and the practice.​

​Key benefits for the patient are:​

• improved understanding of and engagement with public sector health and care providers​
• overall improved clinical outcomes​
• better management of chronic conditions.​

​Key benefits for Lion Health are: ​

• minimised waste of resources through non-attendance​
• minimised waste of resources due to inefficient planning within the care pathway (multiple doctors visits for the same issues, and so on)​
• maximised clinician job satisfaction and efficiency by matching patients to each clinician’s skillset​
• automation and minimisation of GPs’ routine task workload so they can focus on health and care activity that is more proactive.​

Further information

If you would like more information about our services, you can contact us on strategy.unit@nhs.net

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