Introduction

This document is intended for NHS users of Engage Consult. It explains the changes that we are making in this release and how it impacts you and your patients. This is intentionally a summary document - if there's anything you'd like more information about, please get in touch.


Release Window

This release will take place Wednesday 29th July at 12.30 and will not involve any down time.


What's new ?

Send a patient a reminder about their Video appointment 


To ensure that video appointments are not missed we have now included the functionality to send a patient a reminder about their appointment one hour before it is due to start, if the patient has booked their appointment within the hour then a notification will be send at that time.  Text reminders are only available if the user has a valid mobile number saved to their Engage Consult account alternatively they will receive this reminder via email. 


Behind the Scenes


A small number of customers reported that their patients were seeing a false connection error message while completing an IMH questionnaire, following a full review we can confirm this has now been resolved.


We have also been working on a number of behind the scenes bugs and fixes which will improve stability and quality of the overall software.

 

Coming Soon

The team here at EHS are working on a number of exciting feature releases that will be getting out to you very shortly.


Improved Ad-hoc Video

Video consultations have been available in Engage Consult since February 2020.  There are a number of enhancements to the service being developed for release before the end of Q2.  These include being able to offer video appointments (using the clinical system’s appointment book), making it easier to initiate ad-hoc video consultations, and multi-point video consultations (e.g. include a translator or patient advocate).


Inter Org Working 

The next release of inter-organisation working will allow organisations to share groups with other organisations so those organisations can automatically see messages that have been assigned to that group.  This will be particularly useful with extended access and out of hours services.  Those services will be able to view messages and deal with them during their service hours (subject to patient consent).  Practices will be able to see what those services have dealt with and either complete them or continue the care when they return to work.  We expect this release of inter-organisation working to be ready by the end of August.


Outbound Messaging  

Outbound messaging will enable clinicians and practice staff to send patients messages without first having received a message from the patient. This will mean that practices will be able to:

  • invite patients to give follow-up information after a consultation has been completed; 
  • request a photograph or more information from the patient about their condition; 
  • to gather information from the patient linked to their long term condition to support treatment planning;
  • gather QOF related information remotely; 
  • to inform patients of NHS campaigns (for example the flu vaccination program); 
  • and to inform patients when various things have been done on their behalf (for example letters sent to third parties).






This release requires an update to the Vixie client.  If you are unable to update this yourself please contact your IT department.