Since last year, GP practice De Componist has been working with a chat function and an online symptom checker. It became a success story that arouses the interest of many other GPs.
“This is the future,” says Derk Reijnen, practice manager at the De Componist GP practice in Nieuwegein. He is referring to the digitalisation drive that the practice made last year. Patients can now chat with the practice and run a symptom checker themselves.
“Many medical questions lend themselves well to online contact. It adds service for the patient and increases efficiency and job satisfaction here in the practice. Everyone is happy with it, the GPs, the assistants and the patients who use it.”
Positive health
De Componist is a large practice with 18.000 patients, ten general practitioners and 24 medical assistants. The practice forms a health house with other healthcare professionals and providers from the social domain. They work together from the vision of positive health.
The practice had already had a well-organized back office with a digital care portal for patients. According to Reijnen, the perfect foundation for the two Quin applications to land well. “The future demand for care can no longer be met by general practitioners alone. In order to make care future-proof, collaboration and digitalization are necessary. We were already well on our way to that.”
AVG proof
Within care portal Uw Zorg Online patients could make appointments and request repeat prescriptions. E-consultations were also experimented with, but that did not go ideally. Reijnen: “The e-consultations came directly to the GP via the portal. There was a lot of work involved that did not necessarily have to be done by a GP and patients could only respond to returned questions after 24 hours. That was not convenient in our case. In addition, we received a lot of medical questions via the general email address. And that is of course not GDPR-proof.”
Digital triage
Due to its size, the practice has always been focused on healthcare innovations. When one of the GPs read that health insurer Zilveren Kruis was making money available for a pilot with digital triage, there was soon enthusiasm. Reijnen became, as he himself calls it, 'the madman with the flag in front' who was going to pull the cart.
Direction in the back office
The practice decided to go for it. In September 2023, the Quin Chat and Quin Symptom Checker applications were linked to the care portal. The email function was disabled and e-consultations were abolished.
In the well-organized back office, twelve medical assistants are ready every day. One of them has the role of assistant director, which means that she picks up all chats and answers the emergency phone. A director doctor is also always present in this room. Reijnen: “This way, the assistants can quickly consult and they do not have to bother GPs who are running consultation hours with questions.”
Motivating patients
In order to use the chat and symptom checker, patients must log in to the care portal. This is not a problem for most people, but the practice also organizes walk-in consultations to help patients with this. “We kindly point patients to this new, extra service and encourage them a little. But no one has to use the tools. People can of course still call the practice.”
Reijnen previously estimated that a third of patients do not want to go online, a third cannot and a third are happy with it. That appears to be more or less correct.
Chat function
The practice manager sees several advantages of the chat function. Both the patient and the assistant director have the time to formulate and answer questions. While telephone conversations with patients can sometimes be overwhelming or difficult.
“Our experience is that the chat sorts better and the patient's complaints are better queried,” says Reijnen. “It is also useful that the chat can be saved in the file, so that the patient can read it again later. Another advantage is that you can use it at any time of the day, even when the practice is closed.” The counter now goes over five hundred chats every month.
Symptom Checker
Anyone who wants to make an appointment online or chat for a new complaint first goes through the symptom checker. Reijnen: “The advice can be self-care advice, making an appointment with the practice or with the GP post in the weekend. In case of emergency, it is advised to call 112 immediately.”
If the symptom checker is used in the chat, the practice always receives the results. If patients use the tool separately, sharing the results with the practice is optional. About 130 results are now shared per month.
No pilot
Many GP practices are interested in the experiences of De Componist. Reijnen finds this understandable, because as he already indicated: this is the future. He does, however, provide some advice. “You should not see the introduction of these functions as a pilot, but as an unconditional choice. There is no way back. Turn off other options, such as e-mail, and go all out for this new communication channel. Communicate this clearly to your employees and patients.”
According to Reijnen, it is a change that requires an investment from the practice and possibly a reorganization of your back office. You therefore need someone who enthusiastically pulls the cart. In Nieuwegein, the implementation went smoothly. “Quin's tools have landed well here. The GPs experience more space and our assistants are enthusiastic about the new way of working.”