Case Study: Integrated primary care eye service improves patient experience in Morecambe Bay

23 October 2020

 

LOCSU is pleased to launch a new Case Study featuring the Morecambe Bay Community Eye Service, which has made significant improvements to the patient experience across four pathways. Patients are benefitting from improved accessibility and flexibility, whilst the service is reducing pressure on secondary care as a result of appointments taking place primary care settings.

Patient involvement was key to the service redesign, with feedback being gathered from patients and carers through a range of research activities, both in person and online.

Zoe Richmond, LOCSU Interim Clinical Director said “Good public engagement is critical to service redesign and leads to improved patient experience.  As clinicians we are well placed to propose clinical service improvement but we shouldn’t assume we know what is most important to our patients.”

Key needs identified by patients were speed of appointment, minimising travel time and distance, accessibility (eg. ease of parking) and flexibility (eg. weekend appointments), and there was a clear opportunity to meet these needs via primary care optical practices in the area.

The case study describes how the new integrated eye service was designed and commissioned to manage four key pathways within primary care, supported by an integrated IT platform.

Read the Case Study here.

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