Automating engagement with patients in receipt of beds, levers, rails & handles – re MHRA safety notice
This week we held a short notice workshop specifically looking at the MHRA safety notice in terms of beds, rails, levers and handles. With the MHRA deadline for this notice being March 1st, 2024, time is tight for all local authorities and health partners to contact the thousands of people affected.
The specific focus of the session was around utilising automated telephony to contact all the people affected, to ask them a key set of questions, which would lead to accurate, up to date information to prioritise the necessary responses outlined in the notice’s required action list.
Every council on the call confirmed that whilst they were working through their data and process, none of them were confident they would meet the MHRA timelines – the majority identified that they were currently working on data cleansing, to ensure contact was comprehensive.
Having worked with councils across the country on deploying automated telephony to support a range of adult social care services, this safety notice offers a unique time based challenge; one which includes data management, service user prioritisation, issue identification, focused risk assessments, as well as ongoing contact to ensure safety. And automated telephony is well placed to help in every respect.
The questions asked across all the Contact&Connect (our automated telephony platform) services, are co-designed by ASC colleagues at the councils we work with. Here, questions could cover whether the person still has the equipment, whether they have adapted their bed since the equipment was fitted, if their needs or weight have changed, and whether they are able to use the equipment or if anything is broken etc. And when answered, the results – delivered immediately – would provide the intelligence required to prioritise responses and follow up risk assessments. Indeed, we discussed the option of the MHRA related risk assessment being undertaken by the automated approach once the initial screening questions were complete, and the significant resource and time savings that would offer councils.Â
The opportunity and benefits were quite clear to all those attending, key being the ability to underpin the required business process with a real time, personal, data led approach – contacting all the people affected en masse and quickly – to prioritise responses and ensure patient and equipment safety. With the added benefits of contacting and supporting those most in need and risk as a priority – as well as being able to direct calls to advocates and parents – building a logical, comprehensive response and ongoing business process to the challenge.Â
With evidence from our other services showing anywhere between a 50-60% response rate, the calls and SMSs generated by Contact&Connect are a really effective way of contacting people, as well as highlighting those where their contact details are out of date. Indeed, it was mentioned that the cost of the automated calls were well below the cost of hiring staff to undertake the MHRA calls (an avenue many are currently considering).
What this approach means is that in a matter of weeks, you could have calls going out to all the people affected by the safety notice, understand and evidence what their situation is in terms of beds, levers, handles and rails; whether they are at risk; automate follow up risk assessment; and keep in touch with them on a regular basis. The responses to the calls gives you the real time intelligence to direct your resources and focus accurately.
Next steps will be to run a scripting workshop where council colleagues can pin down and refine the relevant safety notice focused questions, and we can help each partner work up the business case. If you would like to be involved, or would like a recording of the workshop, please get in touch.
