Digital Health Transformation Service

Thoughts from Caroline

Since March 2020 we have seen unprecedented times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. NHS and healthcare providers have been at the forefront of the challenges and difficulties faced over the last 18 months. I am beyond proud of the dedication I have witnessed from both the Digital Health Transformation Service (DHTS), formerly known as the ChatHealth support team, and also the incredible and dedicated healthcare professionals that I am lucky to work with, who deliver our NHS safe and secure digital solutions.

Throughout the pandemic there has been innovation and forward-thinking happening nationwide to ensure the ongoing delivery of patient-centred care.

This website shows the impact of our digital products and services in supporting healthcare teams across the country to reach out and engage with their service users over the last year (2020 –2021) and lessons we have learnt during very challenging and difficult times.

Caroline Palmer
Clinical Lead – Digital Health Transformation Service, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust

Achievements

Areas of growth

We’ve supported three times as many implementations as we did in previous years.
We’ve launched an array of new digital tools, now available for other NHS providers to adopt.
We’ve switched to remote ways of working to continue supporting clients across all corners of the UK.

Key achievements

Nursing Times Awards 2020 winner in the Nursing in Mental Health category

Learn more >

Supported as a high-impact innovation by the AHSN Network and the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) for national spread in the NHS

Learn more >

Clinical lead, Caroline Palmer, joined the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme

Learn more >

Impact in Numbers

Adopted by more than

NHS partners across England, Wales & Northern Ireland

(as of March 2022)

More than

5 million

people can access ChatHealth messaging services

(as of March 2021)

60,884

messaging conversations opened

(2020- 2021)

43,048

annual visitors to chathealth.nhs.uk

(2020-2021)

age-appropriate public health information websites

123,355

annual visitors to healthforteens.co.uk

(2020-2021)

111,355

annual visitors to healthforkids.co.uk

(2020-2021)

74,178

annual visitors to healthforunder5s.co.uk

(2020-2021)

Launched in

September 2018

Adopted by

NHS Trusts and healthcare partners

(as of November 2021)

1,435

forms submitted annually by service users

(2019-2020)

forms set up for use in schools across the UK

(as of November 2021)

Launched in

January 2021

health content libraries are live

(as of December 2021)

1,126

monthly video views across the platform

(in November 2021)

One service is saving

£12,764

per annum by switching from in-person to digital workshops

Spotlights

We have been sharing our award-winning technology and best practice with healthcare teams since 2013, when ChatHealth was first developed, to allow young people to get anonymous, health advice from school nurses via their mobile phone.

Since then we have proudly grown the community of digital nurses we work with and provide all the support they need to make it easier for people to access their local NHS services. We have continued the innovation of our integrated suite of digital health tools – winning some prestigious awards along the way – which now includes safe and secure messaging, health information websites, online health forms, online content libraries with other solutions undergoing development.

We are shining a spotlight on each of the NHS services we work with to show the impact of our digital health tools in these areas.

School Nursing >

Health Visiting >

Improved Outcomes

We work with over 2,000 healthcare professionals to share technology and best practice in order to improve outcomes for service users by improving access to healthcare services.

We asked healthcare teams across the NHS to provide feedback on the impact their digital offer has had on their service and how it is improving outcomes for service users.

ChatHealth

60% reported that they feel their ChatHealth messaging service has increased reach.
92% said they would recommend ChatHealth to other healthcare professionals.
The impact of delivering a ChatHealth service was described as having
“enabled communication during lockdown” that it “allows difficult
questions to be raised” and they had “contacts from those who wouldn’t
have previously” as well as offering “equitable accessibility”.

It has been a pleasure working with the Digital Health Transformation Service. You made the transition work smoothly for us, working side by side with us to a tried and tested ChatHealth implementation plan. We felt very well briefed, and supported by Caroline and the team, you answered all of our queries and were very responsive to our needs. This resulted in a really successful roll out, great ownership within the Health Visiting teams and plenty of enthusiasm to make it work well to support our Hertfordshire babies, children and families.
Kay Gilmour, Assistant Director of Children’s Universal Services, Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

Quality Assured Care

As an NHS team we work to the same codes of conduct as our user organisations. We continue to be assessed for technical quality and evaluated to meet NHS clinical safety standards.

Risk management

We annually review our compliance with the information standard ‘Clinical Risk Management: its Application in the Deployment and Use of Health IT Systems’ to assure we identify and mitigate clinical risks, document processes for clinical safety and test for issues that could affect clinical safety.

Clinical Quality

Best practice is continually defined with staff users with access to regular clinical guidance and one-to-one support. Toolkits are provided to help deliver high quality care using messaging, such as standard operating procedures (SOP), quality audit tools, competency checklists and message templates. Our community of innovative healthcare professionals have regular networking opportunities and are influencing and supporting service re-design and delivery nationwide.

Technical security

Our excellent rated technical support team work to the highest technical quality and security standards. Information governance standards are assured by our Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) processes and we adhere to all NHS related compliance frameworks. We are committed to ongoing product redevelopment to support clinical transformation, with upcoming new releases planned.

Strong Partnerships

We work closely with user organisations to ensure they get the most out of our services. High quality staff user training has been designed and supported by our own certified TAP training lead. Regular contract reviews are held with our dedicated client relationship manager and provide an opportunity to discuss promotional plans with our marketing manager. Change leads can join regular national conference calls, hosted by our clinical lead, to network with each other, share best practice and discuss ideas.

Supported Implementations

Led by our certified PRINCE2 trained project manager, our implementation processes are continually refined and evolved to run smoothly and designed to minimise workload impact for joining organisations.

Alongside regular catch-up calls with all project leads, all implementations are managed through key workstreams to cover all relevant clinical, marketing and technical aspects of the implementation, which include:

Workstream calls at the start of each implementation.
Stakeholder engagement event
E-learning training programme for staff users
Project closure call and report

The team are very approachable and nothing was too much trouble.
I would like to say a big thank you for making the whole process as easy and uncomplicated as possible.
I think the ChatHealth service and support we receive is really helpful. It’s great having the conference call to listen and learn from other service providers.

ChatHealth messaging services implemented in 2020/2021

Over

2,000

healthcare professionals now trained to use the ChatHealth system

local area sections went live on HealthWebsites in 2020/2021

525

technical help calls resolved

Innovation Spread

Contact Us

If you’re interested in finding out more about how we can support your health team, please complete the form and one of our representatives will be in touch.

Please note this contact form is for health professionals, not for service users or patients.