Situation
Building a Unified Digital Platform for NHS Patient Care
The NHS National Patient Care Aggregator Platform was devised to provide a single, unified platform for patients to manage their interactions with the NHS. Aimed to be accessed by over 60 million patients 24/7 via the NHS Smartphone App, the platform aims to aggregate patient data across all NHS organisations. This initiative was a part of the broader ‘Wayfinder’ programme, regarded as a critical elective care recovery enabler and one of the Prime Minister’s top five priority items within the NHS’s digital landscape.
Solution
Servita’s Expertise in Designing, Building, and Managing Healthcare Platforms
To bring this ambitious service to life, the NHS entrusted Servita with the design, build, delivery and ongoing management of the NHS Patient Care Aggregator Platform. Using its advanced healthcare integration platform technology, Servita connects and aggregates patient data across all NHS organisations. This enables patients to easily manage their care system interactions, such as referrals, appointments, peri-operative questionnaires, and clinical documentation.
To reduce timescales, costs and carbon footprints associated with typical HL7 integration programmes, Servita developed a bespoke tool that automates the integration and assurance of organisations onboarding to the platform. This advancement in automated platform onboarding carries huge benefits, especially when used at scale, and not only intelligently auto-enables integration but also provides automation around build steps, configuration management and issuance of NHS Login tokens.
Building further on this, Servita created the Wayfinder Dashboard, a tool providing national, regional, trust, and speciality-level reporting for wait times and DNA rates. This potent combination of MI and tooling enables the NHS to target specific patient cohorts at a national level, ensuring interventions and operational improvements are delivered where they are most needed.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery
Servita remains committed to continuous improvement and sustainability. This involved implementing a cutting-edge, infinitely scalable data exchange platform (see InfinitiEx) with incredible levels of system performance.
The platform utilises Servita’s cutting-edge capabilities in Cloud-hosted Kubernetes platforms, advanced DevSecOps protocols and 100% uptime throughout live service with unparalleled monitoring across all integration points enabling instantaneous diagnosis of upstream incidents, a service now relied upon by the National Service Desk.
All integrations were delivered to HL7/FHIR v4 standards.
Impacts
Improved Patient Engagement and Enhanced Operational Efficiency
Servita’s collaboration with the NHS on the NHS National Patient Care Aggregator Platform represents a significant step forward in the way patients in England can proactively interact with their care. The platform provides patients with real-time updates and allows for easy management of their healthcare interactions, leading to substantial national benefits such as reduced waitlists and ‘no-shows.’
Moreover, Servita’s work has bolstered the NHS’s capability to manage its service delivery more effectively. By providing a detailed overview of wait times and DNA rates at various organisational levels, the NHS can now target interventions and operational improvements where they are most needed.
Servita’s work continues to exemplify the power of technology to transform healthcare delivery. By building a connected healthcare ecosystem, Servita has played a valuable role in enhancing patient engagement and operational efficiency within the NHS.