New COVID-19 quality improvement programme now available for GP practices

Together we can fight COVID-19 and keep patients safe

As part our contribution to national efforts to prepare the health service for patient care post-lockdown, Wellbeing Software are collaborating with Optimum Patient Care (OPC) on a novel COVID-19 Quality Improvement Programme for general practices.

The COVID-19 Quality Improvement Programme will help GP practices identify patients affected by COVID-19, and how it affects them through patient questionnaires. Practices receive COVID-19 reports which highlight various at-risk patient groups with targeted recommendations for managing their care, by combining patient reported information and their electronic health records.

Wellbeing Software are supporting participating GP practices with secure healthcare data collection and management to enable OPC to provide tailored reports for practices to help manage their patients affected by COVID-19. The reports will enable practices to prepare strategies and target resources according to their patients’ needs.

Practices are supported to send SMS text requests to their patients (age 18-85) to complete an online COVID-19 questionnaire. The questionnaire has been designed by clinical and scientific experts specifically for use in primary care. (Read more about our primary care software). The programme  also enables practices to contribute urgently needed anonymised patient data for COVID-19  research, that will be used to improve care in the future.

The programme also provides quality improvement or clinical audits and reports that can go directly into appraisal and revalidation portfolios for GPs, nurses, pharmacists, etc. Teaching or training practices may use the programme as a learning tool for GP training and medical student projects.

Dr Dermot Ryan, an experienced health researcher and GP who has recently returned to practice to support patient care during the pandemic said:

“The impact of COVID-19 caught us unaware the first time round. This is our opportunity to prepare for the second wave, so that we are not overwhelmed and are able to provide adequate care to patients. Participating in this programme will increase the ability of GP practices to be prepared. Planning and preparation is vital to combating COVID-19.”

Dr Katherine Hickman, GP and Clinical Respiratory Lead for Braford and Leeds said:

“There is so much we still do not know about COVID-19 and we are learning new things about it as every week passes. This is why I have encouraged the adoption of this novel COVID-19 quality improvement programme in my practice so that we are informed in how we develop future management pathways and continue to support our ongoing learning through substantive primary care data.’’

The initiative is part of a collaboration between numerous academic and NHS partners. It is delivered by the OPC Quality Improvement Service, a social enterprise that already provides free quality improvement services to over 700 GP practices in UK. The programme is available throughout the UK and involves minimal work for GP practices.

To participate or for more information, please visit: https://optimumpatientcare.org/COVID-QI/