Customer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical Group

“MJog is providing us with a massive productivity tool which allows us to do jobs in minutes which would

previously taken us hours or days. It is so much more efficient and people prefer it - they can respond on the

train, on the bus or even when they are doing their shopping.”

Nick Giles

Area Operations Manager, One Medical Group

Customer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical Group

Background

One Medicare Group is a private group of 9 Practices operating in Bradford, Derby, Grimsby, Keighley,

Leeds and Sheffield serving a patient population in total of 25,000 patients. As a group, the number of

DNA's was relatively high – more than 14,700 – which meant a loss of over 2,900 hours each year equating

to £110,000 in lost GP salary. With previous experience of utilising electronic healthcare communications

to reduce DNA’s, Nick Giles, Area Operations Manager, wanted to bring the same efficiencies and cost

savings when he started working at One Medicare towards the end of 2012. For example, the group had

more than 50% of receptionists time allocated to booking appointments and needed to find space in the

diary for walk in appointments. These accounted for 46% of all appointments and often increase for urgent

needs.

In addition to making the patient communications more effective, recalls were a key area for the group’s

practices to focus on for their QOF figures, encouraging patients to come in to the practice, when invited

by SMS or email.

Saving our costs

The group wanted an easy way to contact patients using an electronic way of delivering communications.

The group had been sending out letters to invite patients for flu vaccinations but now choose electronic

communications to send invites firstly by SMS, then by email to patients who do not respond. If patients

do not respond to either electronic communication they are sent an invitation by letter. The response to

SMS and email has cut the number of letters posted to patients down to 300 for the groups Flu campaign.

The practices also use SMS and email to send out annual reviews for Asthma and Diabetes. “It’s now

possible to send out our communications as many times as needed, without the headache and costs of a

traditional mailing process”.

“We sent out nearly 70,000 letters a year, which involved printing, stuffing and posting the letters. Now

our staff simply have to click a button and it’s done, which saves us valuable staff time” One Medicare

are now saving over 60% on their postage costs alone by using MJog’s Patient Messaging Services, through

SMS and email, down from £23,000 per year. In addition, there are savings on staff time where they have

re-directed resources due to time being freed up. One Medicare have seen patient experience improve as

more staff are now available to work directly on the front of reception to deal with patient queries face to

face.

Working in Partnership

Working with MJog since May 2013, there were some quick wins for One Medicare. “The installation was

simple and straightforward, and we found it easy to implement. Across our group we use SystmOne and

MJog’s platform works well with that clinical system.

“Our results speak for themselves with 59% reduction in DNA’s across the group since we implemented

MJog.”

Customer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical GroupCustomer Case Story: One Medical Group

Kevin Nutt, Managing Director of MJog commented, "MJog compliments the Patient contact features of

SystmOne, but allows TPP Practices to cost effectively manage more in depth and regular healthcare

communications with their patients. By utilizing MJog’s free two way SMS messaging, which allows automatic

appointment cancellations and recording of Patient responses, means Practices are able to improve patient’s

experience whilst managing a 24/7 channel of communication effectively.”

In addition to the flu results, One Medicare have freed up staff time and phone lines, by using SMS to deliver

normal blood results. Nick Giles commented “By using SMS, we stop tying up our phones with unnecessary

phone calls, as we can send patients an SMS when blood results are normal, and if a patient needs to see a

doctor for their results, we text the patient asking them to make an appointment .”

Online focus for patients

One Medicare have found that SMS is more effective than email as a communication channel, but are working

hard to obtain more email addresses from patients so that email can be utilised to deliver richer patient

communications. One Medicare have used a variety of ways to get more patients to register their email

address, ranging from handing out leaflets asking patients to register; including this request in new patient

packs; and also using patient mobile numbers to text patients asking for their email address. “We have found

that there is no specific age group which responds to SMS or email, and in-fact our older population are using

both” commented Nick Giles. Nick goes on to comment, “One 80 year old patient who came to a Patient

Group Meeting said he struggles to get out and he does everything online.”

The online prescription service which was launched in Autumn 2013, is still in it’s infancy, but is already taking

off with over 1,700 patients having signed up to using MJog’s electronic channels. Delivering messages with

online links have allowed patients to easily sign up. Nick Giles explains, “People wander around with their

Smart phones and respond straightaway, so as a group of practices we get quicker responses to our

communications with two or three texts. With letter, people tend to stick them on the fireplace. By using

text and email we have seen improved attendance rates for chronic diseases and also improved speed of

response from patients”

Delivering efficiencies

Using electronic communications delivered by MJog, the group is able to market and advertise their private

services using both SMS and email. One Medicare is also seeing the benefits of using MJog’s Patient

Messaging Services by reducing the number of locums and holiday cover needed by the group, and seeing

tangible increases in clinic attendance rates by patients for chronic disease management. One Medicare use

their Annual Patient Survey to get feedback on their services delivered by the practices. Historically, it has

been difficult to get the survey out to patients but at one practice more than 9,000 SMS messages were

delivered which included a link to the survey generating over 5% response rate. This saved the practice

handing out leaflets to patients and asking them to complete the survey by hand.