Forward Thinking Birmingham deploys RIVIAM for secure referral management to mental health services
Benefits of RIVIAM
- Increases patient safety by providing a safer way of collecting information from referrers and the ability to prioritise incoming work.
- Increases team productivity by enabling easier and more efficient triage and decision-making.
Solving secure referral management
Forward Thinking Birmingham (FTB) is using RIVIAM’s Secure Referral Portals to provide people with mental health problems the right care at the right time to improve care.
Forward Thinking Birmingham is the provider of mental health services for people up to the age of 25 in Birmingham. It's a partnership of four organisations that have come together to support children, young people and families in Birmingham.
To enable different mental health services and care providers to work together to better support an individual, FTB decided that an innovative approach to referral management was required. A secure digital service for referral management rather than a paper-based system would deliver much quicker, safer communication about a patient’s needs leading to quicker triage and the appropriate care pathway.
Forward Thinking Birmingham started using RIVIAM’s Secure Referral Portals in April 2016. These are configurable micro websites, hosted by RIVIAM, which present patient referrals in a standardised template that can be easily and safely completed and shared with NHS systems.
Using RIVIAM’s secure referral services
RIVIAM collaborated closely with FTB to configure the referral website to their exact specification taking on board feedback from GPs, other users and provider teams.
Social workers, school nurses and GPs making referrals, as well as parents and individuals making self-referrals, can now access and complete these secure forms via FTB’s website. They are a great way of capturing complex information about patients’ needs quickly and easily.
Forward Thinking Birmingham's referral website
Once all the required fields are completed, with a click of a button the referrals are directly available to FTB's single point of access team.
Clinicians at the centre can access all information they need, triage and assess referrals quickly and easily online. Sensitive patient data is encrypted at all times complying with the high standards of data security required by the NHS.
“Using RIVIAM has meant we have a secure way of enabling everyone who needs to make a referral to us to be able to do so quickly, easily and safely.
This includes those who don’t have secure NHS email such as school nurses, voluntary workers, parents, carers and individuals themselves.” Stuart John Chuan, Deputy Clinical Director, Simplify Health ((the organisation which previously partnered with Forward Thinking Birmingham)
Realising the benefits
For FTB, RIVIAM is a component of its digital infrastructure and delivers a secure referral management service.
RIVIAM enables the organisation to reduce the amount of paper-based referral information received, mitigating any potential information governance issues caused by misuse or loss of patient information. The use of the Secure Referral Portals speeds up the referrals process and creates efficiencies.
“When our clinicians now receive referrals the information is presented in a consistent and easy to read format. This helps them to make a quick assessment of the patient’s need, saving them time and improving our operational efficiency.” Melinda Rees, Managing Director, Simplify Health (the organisation which previously partnered with FTB)
The fact that individuals and their carers can make self-referrals reduces the pressure on GP appointments, and empowers people to take control of their own care.
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