Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust (LCH) is a 3,000 strong workforce who are committed to providing community healthcare services for the people of Leeds. The Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service offers support and resources to people across the city who need mental health support. They receive both self-referrals and GP referrals, at their peak receiving over 1,600 referrals a month with 1,000 referrals a month during quieter periods. 

Before transitioning to a digital process, every referral came through the same ‘front door’ and required an intensive assessment process. These referrals took place over the phone with the high number of calls to the admin team which presented challenges with regards to timely response to all referral attempts.

The team recognised this and were committed to transforming their service to ensure they could help every referral as quickly as possible and make sure they received the treatment they needed. This led to the development of a digital referral route for patients where patients completed an extensive online screening form and had a follow up assessment with a clinician. This created other avenues for patients to access the service but led to an increase in waiting times, with waiting times for accessing the service increasing to a peak of 12 weeks, regardless of urgency. As a result, LCH realigned their strategic objectives around providing timely access to clients and worked hard to create a streamlined and automated digital process to reduce waiting times and promote prompt signposting to relevant services. 

They needed a solution that allowed automation of the process, was clinically relevant and effective, enabled faster access to treatments and freed up clinical time.

To achieve these objectives, Leeds Community Healthcare partnered with Aire Innovate and implemented AireForms, its paperless, customisable electronic forms tool. Leeds Community Healthcare and Aire Innovate worked closely together to transform the referral process, with Leeds Community solidifying their place as true innovators in their field. 

Prior to using AireForms, all patients required a clinical review of their assessment information by a clinician using their existing digital process, but about 40% would not require further assessment appointments. This delayed treatment access for clients whose referral did not require further assessments. After implementation, about 50% of referrals are offered treatment directly after completing their online screening form, reducing service access waiting times from 12 weeks to less than a week.

Through sophisticated scoring and built in logic, the forms automatically triage patients through to the appropriate level of care for them. The forms were designed with clinicians to ensure that patients were triaged effectively, and the data collected could be quickly analysed so patients could access relevant treatment as quickly as possible. Prior to using AireForms, all referrals required a clinical review by a clinician, and 60% of them required further clinical assessment before treatment could be offered. This number decreased to 50% after implementation while 50% of referrals received a treatment recommendation immediately after submitting their referral form.

Leeds Community Healthcare is continuously redesigning and improving the form based on feedback from patients and clinicians, working alongside experts from Aire Innovate. 

Ikenna Oparandu, a screening hub manager at Leeds Community Healthcare, works closely with the team at Aire Innovate on continuous improvement of the processes and he commented:

‍“The USP of AireForms has been how easy it is to change and mould the forms and how easy it was to integrate. Everything has been very straightforward, and we have made and implemented changes really quickly. The developers we work with at Aire Innovate are friendly and helpful and we appreciate that we speak to the same team consistently”.

The clinicians working at Leeds Community Healthcare are pleased with how the new streamlined approach has allowed the service to meet demand, and the ability to offer timely interventions and improve the lives of Leeds residents. 

Without AireForms, Leeds Community Healthcare would have needed double the amount of clinicians they currently employ to meet referral demand, so they have saved hundreds of thousands of pounds annually in staffing costs.