TeleGuide 111 to transform NHS patient sorting

Thursday 19th January 2012

Clinical Solutions has announced the release of TeleGuide 111 content, delivering 30% faster calls and twice as efficient patient sorting, for a more effective NHS 111 services.

TeleGuide 111 is an advanced content suite which has been optimised specifically for NHS 111, the service for all non-emergency NHS calls.

With potential large call volumes, the choice of clinical assessment content can have serious budgetary implications. 

TeleGuide 111 enables NHS 111 organisations to deliver a fast, safe, symptom-based triage and prioritisation when assessing patients over the telephone.

"TeleGuide 111 is the right option for 111 services," said Dr Jean Challiner, Clinical Solutions' Chief Medical Officer.

"It is the result of ten years of UK triage operations with very satisfied patients, in over 60 million calls.  

"TeleGuide 111 is based on algorithms that have successfully managed the automated dispatch of over 200,000 ambulances in the past six years within the ambulance sector."

Two key parameters drive the economics of the NHS 111 service.  For providers, call handling time is the defining criterion. 

For the commissioners, the call sorting (to outcomes) translates into the downstream cost generated for the NHS.

Early NHS 111 procurements suggest a commissioner's target cost per call at around £8, less than half the cost of the predecessor services. 

Cost savings are made by increasing efficiency through automated ambulance dispatch and call transfers and by moving away from nurse triage to non-clinician assessment.

The length of the assessment becomes the cost differentiator for the call centre. Clinical Solutions' TeleGuide 111 was tested with existing clients and the results for the average call handling times are at least 30 – 40 per cent below the published NHS 111 reports on the existing pilots.

"With average assessment times for triaged calls below four minutes and average handling times below six minutes, Clinical Solutions is significantly easing the providers' costs," said Dr Challiner.

"The patient experience is better too. For example, young parents in the middle of the night with a sick toddler do not want to be on the phone for long; the content supports this with a shorter time on the call and easy to follow questions."

The challenge for the NHS 111 service is to achieve high quality outcomes with non clinicians, otherwise the savings made on the call centre part of the operation is outweighed by onerous outcomes, generating higher demand for face to face services and moving costs further downstream.

For instance, based on current published NHS 111 figures for the existing pilots, the average cost for each NHS 111 call outcome is between £40 and £541.

TeleGuide 111 drives breakthrough call sorting. With less than four per cent of the calls leading to ambulance dispatch and over 40 per cent leading to actual self care advice, the average outcome cost with TeleGuide 111 is £27. 

This could improve the benchmark position for NHS 111 by £200 million to £400 million, based on the currently planned forecast of 16 million calls in year one.

"We have the ability to track the chief symptom and the exact questions that are asked of patients," Dr Challiner said.  

"We have taken a large representative sample of five million in and out-of-hours national triage calls, simulated them against TeleGuide 111 and confirmed the sorting. 

"The results are compelling. The impact of the reduction of hundreds of millions of pounds on NHS costs will be noticeable."

TeleGuide 111 has been fast tracked to a live content pilot by the Department of Health following a detailed clinical safety, governance and software review.

Clinical Solutions