Synertec’s partnership with
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
“The set-up process was straightforward; we feel lucky to work alongside the team at Synertec to guide us through the phases."
Key Takeaways
- A bespoke automated audit and reconciliation process was developed to address Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s (NUTH) letter reconciliation issue, reducing administrative workload and improving financial transparency.
- How we support NUTH on their digital transformation benefitting patients and staff.
- The crucial role Synertec plays in managing outgoing patient communications for NUTH, handling diverse document types from multiple systems.
Synertec have become an integral part of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s (NUTH) outgoing patient communications. We support them by handling various document types, from multiple systems in different data formats. This includes clinical outcome letters, appointment letters and NHS England screening communications for breast screening and targeted lung health checks.
Synertec have been working with NUTH for almost 10 years, continually building on the services that are provided to the trust, by utilising the latest technologies. Our most recent development is supporting NUTH to achieve digital transformation. This involves Synertec formatting patient letters for the trust into standard PDF’s and embedding them in a HL7 message. This allows NUTH to upload their letters into their chosen Patient Engagement Platform (PEP) which is driven by Health Call through the NHS app. This will save valuable time and money for the trust, whilst improving patient experience and supporting patients’ digital preferences. From all the letters sent by NUTH, roughly 40% are processed by Synertec, which equates to more than 2.5 million letters in the last financial year. NUTH anticipate just under half of these to be uploaded to their PEP for patients to access digitally in the future.
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It was huge for the organisation, when invoices were coming through, they weren’t matching up. We know the bills we are paying are right now.
- Rachel Paolillo, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Developing a Solution
Synertec have 25 years of experience in addressing challenges and developing bespoke solutions for organisations. When NUTH approached us with a reconciliation issue, we were immediately able to help. NUTH were experiencing a significant problem reconciling letters that had been generated within their patient administration system, Cerner Millennium. Although the issue consisted of only a small number of missing outpatient letters, due to the extensive number of letters the trust sends, they could not easily identify which letters had been missed.
Rachel Paolillo, Operational Services Manager for Outpatients & Health Records at NUTH, explains how “We would have to print all the letters again and go through them individually to make sure all letters were accounted for. This resulted in days of extra work for the team.”
Synertec began working with the IT and Operational teams at NUTH to tailor a bespoke automated audit and reconciliation process. A decision was made to assign a unique identifier to each patient letter, which Synertec would retrieve upon digital receipt from the trust. Subsequently, these unique IDs would be checked against a file provided by NUTH of all letters generated from Cerner Millennium. This happens each day to easily identify any missing letters. Any letter ID’s that were not received would be provided to NUTH and they would then resend them to Synertec for dispatch to patients.
At Synertec, the team guides and supports customers through the implementation process, ensuring a smooth transition, with minimal disruption to their current practices. Rachel stated, “The set-up process was straightforward; we feel lucky to work alongside Cathy, Chris and the team at Synertec to guide us through the phases.”
Not only was the reconciliation issue an administrative burden for the trust, financially it was causing difficulty too. Reflecting on the service, Rachel states “It was huge for the organisation, when invoices were coming through, they weren’t matching up. We know the bills we are paying are right now.” This standard of service is put in place to support the confidence of the project and set the foundations for our partnership together.
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We recommend this process to other trusts who are experiencing similar issues with PAS systems, it is important for our organisation to ensure the correct letter is going to the correct patient on time.
- Rachel Paolillo, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Working with Synertec
The long-lasting partnership between Synertec and the Trust demonstrates just how well the teams have collaborated to provide patients with the best experience.
Rachel reveals “Most of the Synertec contract at NUTH is managed centrally, which is a huge account, however we make sure that any issues go through myself and my Assistant Operational Services Manager at NUTH and Cathy at Synertec who is our Account Manager. We have a monthly meeting which really benefits both teams -this gives us time to talk to through any issues, invoice queries, postage, service updates.”
Synertec supports trusts in achieving their digital goals and combating any issues that can emerge in the process.
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