Waiting Well

What

The Waiting Well initiative provides specific assistance to patients awaiting treatment or surgery. Hospitals can utilise PKB's care plans and library features to aid patients in self-management during the period leading up to their initial assessments or consultations. By sharing relevant information, patients can be supported in waiting well and stay informed about their position on the waiting list.

Why

There is much evidence to show that when people take simple steps before their surgery or treatment to improve or maintain their fitness, have a healthy diet and have good mental health, it aids their recovery. It also reduces the risk of their surgery or treatment being cancelled on the day because of them not being well or fit enough to have the operation.

How

Organisations can effectively initiate contact with all referred patients through eMeet and Greet, offering waiting well resources and maintaining communication from the very beginning. All these resources are conveniently accessible through the NHS App/Login.

Teams and organisations can simply and efficiently create a library of content for the patients in the waiting well team, providing generic information on healthy eating, weight management before and after surgery, and fitness and mental health support. 

 

Current problems

  • Long waiting list

  • Unknown deterioration resulting in emergency admissions

  • Patients feeling lost and ringing for updates 

  • Patients not fit for surgery 

  • No education or support for patients

  • Paper and phone-based approach not fit for purpose

PKB benefits 

  • Multi-channel welcome notification: immediate notification via the NHS App when a referral is received

  • Early onboarding: SMS prompts for unregistered patients to sign up for PKB with NHS login

  • Automated specialty team referral: direct connection to relevant teams and condition-specific information

  • Patient triage: questionnaires to optimise waiting list management based on patient preferences

PKB solution 

  • Early health screening, assessments via questionnaires to triage screen and inform pre-assessment appointments

  • Shared Decision Support Tools care plans, NHSE validated

  • Condition specific aids, prepare patients for their appointments, inform decision making and support a robust consent process

  • Waiting Well resources,  specialty-specific educational materials are available using PKB’s Library function

Key features 

Key PKB features all services can use to deliver health promotion and education to patients while they wait for their operation/treatment or outpatient appointments are listed below.

Questionnaires 

Patients can initiate a questionnaire by clicking Start Questionnaire on their homepage or directly within the NHS App. Once completed, the questionnaire can be sent to a professional or team.

Send questionnaires to assess a patient’s health situation or preferences.  For example, this can be used to understand suitability for a pre-operative surgical hub and provide data to inform or reduce time for pre-assessment appointments.

Questionnaire templates

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Library 

Disease and condition-specific education resources are available within PKB’s Library function to support all patients who are waiting well.  Offer Prehab care plans with week-by-week guidance to ensure patients are ready for surgery.

  • Waiting Well information

  • Prehab advice

  • Resources and websites

Care plans 

PKB care plans can be used at every stage of a patient's condition journey; below are some of the care plan templates being used and templates that can be created.

Appointments 

  • Appointment letters and appointments sent to PKB via integration

  • Manually entered appointments

PKB eMeet and Greet with Waiting Well Workflow

Further Information