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Case study:
Aire Valley Surgery

Total triage: Freeing up time with faster data gathering and communication

Since moving to total triage in early 2023, Aire Valley Surgery has offered a faster, more efficient service to their 14,500 patients in Leeds.
Where the team was once ‘hugely overrun’, staff now have patient demand under control and are enjoying a better work-life balance – with more time for proactive care and cost savings in the thousands.
Use Accurx for total triage
nhs

Impact at a glance:

Patient demand
now under control

50% cut in
postage costs

Better staff and patient satisfaction

Context: held back and overrun

In 2020, Aire Valley Surgery in Yeadon and Rawdon was ‘hugely overrun’ and demand for appointments outstripped capacity.
The practice’s old triage system was time-consuming. Patients had to fill in a number of forms and the data that came through was often limited. All requests would come into a list, which staff would have to go through, often phoning up patients for more information.
Without a quick way to gather data and communicate with patients, the practice spent £15,000 a year on postage and had limited time for disease monitoring and QOF work.

We wanted a system that we could use for total triage – and then Accurx came along. We looked at the Accurx model and found it far superior to what we were using. We decided to self-fund the move to Accurx because we thought – and still think – that it’s worth the money.

Dr Adrian Rees, GP Partner, Aire Valley Surgery

In March 2023, Aire Valley self-funded Accurx
to implement total triage

How total triage works with Accurx

It’s not just about online consultations...

Where Aire Valley’s previous tool could only be used for online consultation, the team now have multiple tools in their arsenal to manage demand and coordinate a patient’s care:

Patient Triage and Reception Flow let the practice funnel all requests into one inbox, ready for the team to action

Staff can send SMS messages and patient questionnaires to collect data, monitor conditions and meet needs remotely

Accumail lets staff communicate quickly and easily with other NHS services, without system hopping

With Self-Book, staff can instantly send patients booking links to take the time out of appointment booking

Get your all-in-one toolkit for total triage

Accurx isn’t just suitable for total triage – it’s built for it. See how your practice can use Accurx to effectively manage demand.

Explore Accurx total triage

The impact? Speed, savings and no more overwhelm

Aire Valley are now able to clinically assess the needs of patients at pace, with structured and accurate information about a patient’s condition. They can also have productive two-way dialogues with patients in just a few clicks, often removing the need for an appointment. This has reduced pressure and improved satisfaction for staff, who can interact easily with multiple patients at any one time.
  • Patient demand is now under control with better triaging of clinical need, quicker communication and easy next steps for actioning patient requests.
  • The surgery has made significant cost savings, halving the amount spent on postage. This money is being reinvested back into patient care. 
  • Quicker data gathering and triage has saved time for proactive care, helping the team monitor chronic conditions and improve QOF scores.
Learn more about total triage

Accurx lets us use a total triage model. Our team now starts on time and finish on time because our systems work. Patients like it and give lots of good feedback.

We can integrate with the clinical system, quickly respond to patients and make sure that their first point of contact is the most appropriate source of clinical care. The system allows us to redirect patients to the most appropriate service right from the outset.

Dr Adrian Rees, GP Partner, Aire Valley Surgery

The results are in...

In September 2023, our survey responses from 373 GP practice staff showed the outsized impact of total triage.

75% of GP practice staff

believe they are now providing a more equitable service

81% of practices

feel they are now better equipped to keep up with inbound patient demand

65% of practices

said that patients are more satisfied with their service

Inspired by Aire Valley?

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