With over 25 years of health care innovation, PCMIS (Patient Case Management Information System) Health Technologies Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary company of the University of York, specialising in evidence based technology solutions designed to drive efficient mental health case management. PCMIS is the flagship product – a case management system originally designed to support the first trial site for the NHS’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) in 2006, now used nationwide by thousands of clinicians every day.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS England identified the need to improve the digital provision and processes across the IAPT programme as face-to-face appointments became impossible and more people suffered with mental health-related illnesses due to lockdown restrictions. It was vital to ensure that NHS IAPT services could still easily connect and support local communities despite the restrictions.
PCMIS set up Patient Portal SMS, integrating Textlocal’s Messenger to send text messages containing links that provided secure access to online forms, where patients could submit their clinical assessments in advance of their telephone or video appointments.
The subsequent scores and responses then flow seamlessly into the PCMIS electronic patient record, where a psychological therapy worker can assess them and make decisions on what to focus on in their appointment.
Patient Portal SMS has helped to ensure IAPT services can keep communication lines open, giving patients the ability to easily access the vital mental health support that IAPT services provide.
For the feedback responses on IAPT treatment, attaching trackable short links to the text messages generated an impressive 66% response rate for the Patient Experience Questionnaire links sent via SMS.
