21st Century tools for a new era in patient communication

WINNER

CONNECTING WITH THE COMMUNITY TO DRIVE BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES
Tāmaki Health

Transforming the communication platform across its national network has changed the way Tāmaki Health communicates with its patient population.

Tāmaki Health’s network includes more than 250,000 enrolled patients through its Local Doctors and White Cross urgent care clinics, treating more than 4000 patients each day through 47 clinics from Whangārei to Christchurch.

Identifying a better way to interact with patients, Tāmaki Health launched a multi-channel communications programme last year that is improving engagement, education and patient experience.

“The commercial world is much better at communicating with its clients compared with primary health. If you are about to fly somewhere or go to a gym, you get text messages, not just explaining what you need to do, but also marketing. Healthcare can learn from that,” Tāmaki Health chief operating officer Josh Stent says.

“Our existing platforms made that difficult and, with 300,000 patients across the network and most of Auckland using the A&E clinics at some stage, we felt a responsibility to improve our communication platform,” he says.

“With healthcare, there is no shortage of things to talk about. It could be about managing health, reminding people about check-ups or tests, or information on managing diabetes with nutrition.”

The new platform includes a website, telehealth and digital community outreach using social media and electronic direct mail.

“This proved very significant during COVID-19, with patients feeding into our Facebook pages to ask questions and get information. We had nurses hold an open conversation with Pacific Island women about breast cancer awareness and sent out an email with 46 per cent of respondents opening the email,” Mr Stent says.

In addition, a video introducing our Wellness Support Team and free mental health services reached 32,000 patients, while an upbeat video thanking Kiwis for staying at home during the first COVID-19 lockdown reached 192,000 patients.

“The new platform has also allowed us to ask patients to rate their experiences and leave comments about what works and what needs improvingor changing, and we have a lot of insight from that and improved their experience,” Mr Stent says.

For example, people were worried about waiting times. The website now has real-time indicators so a patient can see what the wait times are in clinics and how faraway they are. Last month, there were 16,000 visits to that tool, he says.

Judges' comments:

Your initiative in providing easier access to primary healthcare in a number of innovative ways, particularly to those in higher need. It is to be applauded. Well done

FINALIST

LIVING WATERS MEDICAL SOLUTIONS LIMITED
Living Waters Medical

THE TEAM AT LIVING WATERS MEDICAL has transformed a GP practice at the end of its life, into a thriving practice with a focus on community charity projects.

“We faced a lot of challenges and it would have been easy to walk away, but we chose to stay and fight, and our community fought with us,” Living Waters Medical director and principal GP Praveen Thadigiri says.

Living Waters Medical cares for two of the most vulnerable communities in Whanganui, the suburb of Castlecliff (NZDep Index 10) and Whanganui Prison.

Following a change of ownership in late 2014 an RNZCGP assessment declared the old Castlecliff Health practice “dysfunctional”. But after a lot of hard work, the practice relaunched in November 2020 as Living Waters Medical, with a new building (winning the NZPHA Good Space Award in 2020), a new business model and a thriving practice.

The business model includes a resthome and a restaurant, giving the staff resources to provide low-cost care and continue community projects.

“We haven’t taken a step back, even when faced with diversity, and we are still standing...and standing strong,” Dr Thadigiri says.

Judges' comments:

Clearly, this centre leaves a daily heart print on its community. Wonderfully engaged and enthusiastic in the approach

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