Pipeline / Drafts

Patient Recall in GP Practices: 7 Ways to Get More Patients Booked

pipeline/02-drafts/refresh-recall-pillar.md · updated Sat 20 Oct, 02:46

Front matter

StageDrafts
Typerefresh
Clusterrecall
Personapractice-manager
Target querypatient recall
OwnerTom
Proof refsbooking-rate-nhsappbooking-rate-emailbooking-rate-textbooking-rate-whatsapplanguages
Replaceshttps://www.hippolabs.co.uk/blog/7-ways-to-streamline-patient-recall-in-gp-practices

Copy into Framer

Each field maps to the CMS item
TitlePatient Recall in GP Practices: 7 Ways to Get More Patients Booked
Slug7-ways-to-streamline-patient-recall-in-gp-practices
Meta descriptionPractical ways to run patient recall in a GP practice: which channel books most patients, how often to recall, and how to fill clinics without extra admin. (155 chars)
BodyFormatted. H1 removed because the title has its own field.

Reviewer notes

Not for publication
REVIEWER NOTES (not for publication) - Slug kept identical so the page keeps its existing rankings. Change title and meta only in Framer page settings. - Removed from the live page: every unsourced figure (34 million NHS App users, 22.5 million messages, $1.38 million, 10.9% to 7.1%, $125,000, the East London 75% figure), the dollar amounts, and the "Sunil, Managing Partner" quote. None trace to the register and the quote has no consent record. - recall-success-rate (75.6%) is deliberately NOT used. See the note to Tom: it cannot be reconciled with the channel rates in the same register. - No clinical outcome claims. Every number is a booking rate, which is operational.

Body

Patient recall works when the right patient gets the right message at the right time, on a channel they actually read. Most recall problems come from getting one of those three wrong. Here are seven ways to fix them.

What is patient recall?

Patient recall is how your practice invites patients who are due care: an annual review, a blood pressure check, a smear, a vaccination. It covers finding who is due, contacting them, and getting them booked.

Done by hand, it means searches, spreadsheets, letters and phone lists. Done well, it runs every day in the background and your team only handles the patients who need a person.

1. Which channel gets the most patients booked?

The NHS App. Across practices using Hippo, here is how many recalled patients booked within two weeks, by channel:

Channel Patients who booked
NHS App 44.1%
Email 35.8%
Text (SMS) 30.8%
WhatsApp 26.1%

So if a patient has the NHS App, use it first. Text is still worth sending. It just should not be your only channel.

2. Do you need to pick a channel for every patient?

No. Pick an order and let the system follow it.

Hippo checks four channels for each patient. First it reuses whatever worked last time: if a patient booked from an email before, they get an email again. If there is no history, it tries the NHS App, then email, then WhatsApp, then text. It skips any channel the patient has opted out of.

You stay in control. Each campaign can be limited to the channels you choose.

3. How do you stop recalling the same patients too often?

Set a delay after recent care.

A patient reviewed in February becomes eligible again on 1 April when the QOF year resets. Without a buffer, they get recalled straight away. That annoys patients and wastes appointments.

In Hippo this is the Eligible Delay. It defaults to six months: a patient seen for similar care in the last six months is left out of new campaigns. You can shorten or lengthen it.

4. How many invites should you send per appointment?

More than one, for high-volume clinics.

Not every patient books straight away. If you send one invite per slot for smears or NHS Health Checks, clinics fill slowly. Hippo lets you send several invites per available slot while still respecting your daily cap. Start at one per slot, watch how fast clinics fill, then raise it.

5. How do you reach patients who do not read English?

Send the recall in their language.

Hippo translates recall messages into the preferred language recorded on the patient's record, in more than 70 languages. If no language is recorded, or it is not supported, the patient gets the message in English. It is on by default and you can switch it off per campaign.

Keep preferred language up to date on the record. Translation only works if the field is filled in.

6. How do you keep recall running without someone on it every day?

Automate the routine and keep people for the exceptions.

An automated campaign finds eligible patients, sends invites, and spreads them out so you are not flooded with bookings on Monday morning. Your team then works the patients the automation cannot reach: no contact details, opted out of everything, or needing a conversation.

7. How do you know recall is working?

Measure bookings, not messages sent.

Track how many patients you invited, how many booked, and how long it took. Compare channels against each other. If one condition books far worse than the rest, look at the message and the appointment availability before you send more.

Next steps

If QOF year end is your deadline, read how to hit your QOF targets before 31 March.

To see how Hippo runs recall for your practice, get started or book a demo.