Working With the NHS App Team: Improving Engage Consult

At Engage Health Systems, we’re dedicated to keeping our solutions up-to-date with the latest functionality and guidance from the NHS and other regulations. That’s why we’ve completed a full review of Engage Consult within the NHS App, working collaboratively with the NHS App team.

And that’s not all: we’re proud to announce that we’re in the first round of assurance for utilising NHS push notifications and the NHS App inbox – meaning we’re the leading choice for practices that want to save money on SMS and send notifications directly to patients.

So what’s new with Engage Consult? And what are the benefits of working closely with the NHS App team? We’ll give you all the updates here.

A full review of Engage Consult in the NHS App

We first onboarded with the NHS App over 5 years ago, and a lot has changed since then. We needed to ensure that we were still following the best practices and guidelines that the NHS App sets out for all its suppliers.

We knew we were missing a key piece of functionality – the ability to allow patients to upload files. Now that telephone and virtual appointments are common, it’s vital that patients can send documents or photographs if they need to.

Our app also had subtle differences from the NHS App, which can be confusing for practice staff and patients alike. We wanted to make sure that the service was mirrored, regardless of whether the patient accessed via the NHS App or Engage Consult.

Our product and development teams mapped out all of our user journeys to spot where we needed to make improvements. We identified pain points and developed new functionality to eliminate these issues, before putting them through rigorous testing and demos to check they were working correctly.

As well as our new document upload feature, we added embedded NHS content for medical problems which includes signposting, alerts, and helpful videos. This means that we now follow the Pharmacy First scheme, directing the patient to their local pharmacy when seeking help for the identified common conditions. We also ensured that we followed the NHS design manual exactly, offering continuity for patients when they use Engage Consult within the app.

The NHS App team’s review

The benefit of working closely with the NHS App team is that they ensure that our solutions are of the highest standard for patients and clinicians. They carried out a full review of Engage Consult, including the existing medical consultation and admin query journeys within the NHS App as well as the new document upload and NHS content journeys.

Using their extensive research and user testing experience, the NHS App team gave us specialised guidance for revisions and accessibility improvements.

Working with the NHS App team puts Engage Health Systems in a unique position where our solutions are put to the test by those who know our customers best, ensuring that we offer the best products and services possible to patients and practices.

Another benefit of working with the NHS App team is that they’ve noticed our commitment to quality and adhering to strict regulations, meaning we’ve had the opportunity to work on a new feature with them.

NHS Notify – push notifications and inbox

We’re delighted to announce that we’re in the first round of assurance for NHS Notify, meaning we can utilise push notifications and the NHS App inbox.

SMS is expensive, but sending messages to patients’ mobiles is a proven way to reduce missed appointments and improve experience. That’s why it’s vital that practices have a way to communicate with their patients that is free and simple to use.

We’ll keep customers updated as we develop this crucial feature. Thanks to our dedication to quality and standards, we’re the first choice for practices looking to reduce their SMS spend.

If you’re interested in using Engage Consult or any of our other solutions, get in touch with us now.