Tackling DNAs Proactively With PACO
PACO helps identify frequent DNA patients, enabling proactive engagement to reduce non-attendance
The Challenge
The knowledge that more precious NHS time has been wasted by a patient making and not-attending an appointment or requesting a call only to let it go to voicemail. So frustrating. There’s also that tinge of guilt that you’re secretly delighted about because it gives you 15 minutes to get back on time, grab a brew and nip to the loo.
With practices overwhelmed with demand, every missed appointment is also time that could be spent helping colleagues, doing paperwork or seeing other patients. A single DNA does not allow a practice to recoup that time, however, as the next patient is often already in the waiting room.
Not only is this situation ridiculously frustrating for everyone involved but the lack of respect for healthcare workers’ time can have a real negative impact on the mental well-being of practice staff. DNAs have just become a fact of life for many healthcare workers. This is an annoying reality that just has to be accepted if you want to work in General Practice.
How PACO Can Help
Within PACO you can identify on the main dashboard within seconds of loading the page the top 5 patients with the highest DNA’s … Meaning you can then drill down into this information to see exactly what sessions they have DNA’d. The ability to filter and search by clinical codes and demographics gives powerful insight into the “who” and the “why”. You can also present these patients on a map to identify geographical areas for targeted interventions.
PACO doesn’t stop there, you can set a search up to identify patients whose DNA multiple times in a month and send comms out to them to educate them about the importance of attending their appointments. You can also proactively look ahead and see if the patients have any appointments in the future and plan to make contact with the patient ahead of the appointment to reduce the chance of the patient DNAing.
What PACO Did
Within 2 of the initial practices, they reviewed the Capacity and Demand analytics on the DNA rates through October & November where their average DNA rate was Calculated as a baseline.
Practice A, small practice with 8,000 patients, there average DNA was 2.7% this equates to 280 missed appointments over 3 months costing the practice a total of 70+ hours and a financial impact in excess of £7,000 over the 3 months.
Practice B, large multi-site city centre practice with 50,000+ patients, average DNA rate was 4.8% with over 2,800 missed appointments in the same 3-month period costing the practice 590 lost hours at a financial impact of £59,000.
In both practices they assigned someone to monitor DNA’s on a daily and weekly basis, they looked at appointments due in the coming week and if those patients had DNA’d previously and put in manual efforts to contact and ensure they were reminded of appointments.
Practice A
Average Practice List Size = 8,000
Average DNA 2.7% = 280 missed appointments
Losing +70 hours
Costing £7,000
Practice B
Average Practice List Size = +50,000
Average DNA 4.8% = 2,800 missed appointments
Losing +590 hours
Costing £59,000
Impact
In both practices, there was a significant reduction in the DNA rate through proactive measures.
Practice A reduced their DNA overall rate to 1.8% which is a reduction of approx 35 appointments, saving 9 hours of appointments in practice and saving £1,000 per month.
Practice B reduced their DNA overall rate by 3.5% which is a reduction of approx 200 appointments, saving 50 hours and saving £5,000 per month.
Patient Experience
Reminders of appointments meaning less likely to forget
Operational Efficiency (Time/Cost)
Reductions in DNA from patients meaning fewer appointments wasted increasing capacity
See PACO in Action
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