We have all become accustomed to handling things online in our everyday lives, and for several years now, research has shown that 60 to 70 percent of people wants to use GP services online. The COVID-19 pandemic has ensured that healthcare providers are (temporarily) more open to digital possibilities, but the digitalisation of GP care is still at an early stage. Why is that? The only thing we, as professionals, actually have to do is to go along with this development and facilitate such services.
Proven added value of digital services
The notion that patients want eHealth was one of our most important reasons to start working with it. By now, our patients can use the patient portal on our website, and the ‘Het Huisartsenteam’ app, to book an appointment, order repeat prescriptions, and ask questions via eConsultations. Over 50% of all appointments are made online, and the majority of repeat prescriptions is applied for online. E-consultations are also popular in practice: around 25 a day. Our online services create a win-win situation: it enhances the service provided to the patient, and the clinic benefits from, among other things, a lower number of incoming calls, and more effective logistics for questions and results. Because of this, our assistants can attend to other tasks, which provides us with a solution to the current problems with the job market. It is preferable to use an assistant functionally, where you can. Online services facilitate this.
“We are now seeing that the phone usage is decreasing and that 51% of all appointments are booked online.”
A digital foundation is crucial
The digitalisation of our GP surgery didn’t come easily. For instance: we’d had a patient portal for years, but barely saw an increase in users until about four years ago. Then we started doing things differently, working with a clear, long-term vision. The foundation for our online services was built by first focussing on the implementation of basic services: booking appointments online, e-consults, and ordering repeat prescriptions. We documented our progress carefully, quantitatively and qualitatively, to be able to demonstrate what worked and what didn’t work. Bringing our employees onboard required perseverance. Sometimes results need time before they can be observed. And definitely not everything was a success.
“Only when the employees are used to basic digital services and see their benefits, is it a useful next step to take.”
As soon as our basic services could demonstrate their added value, there was room to expand our online services. By now, we also have the ‘check your birthmark’ function (also known as SkinVision) in our portal. With it, you can take a picture of your birthmark and receive an indication of whether to do something about it. What makes this app interesting is that it’s a function that, among other things, has the potential to prevent a GP visit. I expect that in the future, more digital services will be employed that are primarily focussed on ‘zero-line’ diagnostics and digital triage. There are already potentially interesting options in that area, which we are currently looking into implementing into our services.
Overcoming cold feet
The reason why many fellow general practitioners still offer no or limited digital services, is partially because of cold feet. Practitioners think, for example, that their patients won’t care for such eHealth applications. Will a patient use the proffered services? Additionally, they also often can’t (yet) oversee the effects of offering a digital service. To what extent will I lose control of my agenda if I disclose it for the online booking of appointments by patients?
Our experience is that patients use digital services well, instinctively, and our patients are very satisfied with them. It is smart to make the services appealing to the patients. If the patient attempts to book an appointment online and can only be seen in four days, they will call the clinic. If they can then see the GP tomorrow, they will never go back to the online environment, because they are at a disadvantage there. We are also actively distributing comprehensible information in the consultation and waiting rooms and via newsletters to our patients that explain the possibilities of our digital services.
eHealth stimulates collaboration
The digitalisation of GP care is persevering, and more and more functionalities are becoming available. We, too, will continue to expand our online services. Think of video consultations and a chat function with which patients can communicate with the assistance and surgery in an easily accessible yet safe way. The control is coming to lie with the patient, and we must use their enthusiasm to unburden healthcare. It was remarkable, for example, that our patients quickly began to use the ‘check your birthmark’ function. We didn’t advertise it in the surgery. I expect that if you add a ‘check your file’ button, people will do so of their own volition. It generates interest, and the advantage for us is that we don’t have to pay special attention to it.
What makes eHealth charming is that it lets many different parties and perspectives work together, but this is also what makes it tricky. It’s important to assess the impact of digital services on the care chain. Adjust this to the different chain partners, involving IT experts, insurance providers, and the government. The functioning of separate IT systems (interlinking, ease of use, different usernames and passwords) often leaves something to be desired, or is not (yet) suitably reimbursed, for example.
At some point we got started, because we were convinced the patient wanted us to. But for eHealth to succeed you not only need patients and healthcare professionals, but also assistants, IT experts, and other chain partners. It’s a given that the possibilities are there, but it’s now up to use to implement them correctly.
