Hospital saving money and reducing missed appointments with digital letters

Lynn’s hospital is using digital appointment letters in a bid to help save money and help make sure that patients do not miss their appointments.On average, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has 1,000 outpatient appointments every weekday.Since the introduction of digital letters and text messaging appointment reminders, the number of patients who do not attend their appointments has decreased from 8.3% to 6.3%.

The hospital first started using digital letters in February last year, which bosses say saves 85p on postage per letter. If all patients opted for digital letters this would save £4,250 per week – totalling £221,000 a year.Trudy Taylor, head of information and business support at the QEH, said: “Not only does the use of digital letters save the trust money, but they also do not get easily lost.“Digital letters help patients remember where to go and when their appointment is at the click of a button. “On average, we are seeing 100 more patients attend their appointments each week than we did in June 2023. It is really important people attend their appointments so we can make sure that people are seen when they need to be.”The hospital has also been helping patients attend their appointments by calling them in advance – especially if they have been referred by their GP at short notice. Patients are automatically opted in to receive a digital letter.However, if they choose not to interact with the message within 24 hours, the digital letter is converted to paper and sent in the post.Currently, almost 70% of QEH patients are choosing a digital letter.