Cold weather triggers automated phone calls to COPD sufferers
This winter, nine General Practitioner (GP) surgeries in Cornwall are piloting an innovative alert system for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to help improve patient well-being and to reduce hospital admissions.
An interactive, automated voice call system alerts patients when Met Office COPD health forecasts indicate that the outdoor environment will put them at risk.
The system currently has over 400 patients registered to use it. Calls to patients were made twice over Christmas and New Year, enabling COPD sufferers to take action and prevent their condition getting worse, improving both their health and quality of life.
"For the past two years the Met Office has provided COPD health forecasts to health professionals in Cornwall and a large number of other Primary Care Trusts," says Dr Tish Laing-Morton, Met Office Clinical Director.
The Met Office issues weekly COPD forecasts which indicate elevated risk when cold weather is expected, or when there are high levels of respiratory infections in the community.
"To produce the forecasts, we monitor in-hours and out-of-hours GP workload, NHS Direct call volumes, hospital admissions data and influenza surveillance as well as using data from our sophisticated forecasting models, So far, the challenge has been to turn these forecasts into actions that benefit patients,” adds Dr Laing-Morton.
In other parts of the country, a wide range of methods have been used to contact patients, with NHS Direct call centres and organisations such as Age Concern working with practices, pharmacists and community matrons. Alerts have also been sent to at risk patients by text message and email.
Some of the best results are from South Warwickshire, where practice nurses called patients personally in response to the forecasts, reducing hospital admissions by up to 35 per cent. "Anyone working in a busy practice will testify that freeing up nurse time to call patients at the busiest times during winter can be difficult," Dr Laing-Morton comments.
The Met Office teamed-up with Medixine, a Finnish telemedicine company to help solve this problem by providing an interactive automated telephone service to contact people during high-risk periods. The practices piloting the system invite patients to sign-up to the scheme by letter. Practice staff enter patient details in to the system and these are stored within the NHS Net computer system to ensure compliance with patient confidentiality guidelines.
When high-risk weather conditions are forecast, the Met Office will activate the system and the patient will receive a phone call. A pre-recorded human voice will give an explanatory introduction followed by two evidence-based questions: 'Do you have enough medication for your COPD to last for the next two weeks?' and 'Have your symptoms become worse than normal?'
Patients' responses will be logged on the system and the practices will be sent an email requesting that they log on to view the results. The results are listed by patient and prioritised by severity of need and followed up at the practice’s discretion.
The Met Office will be seeking partners in the near future to support the development and expansion of this innovative service for other conditions such as asthma, stroke and heart failure.
To find out more about the Met Office's health forecasting services and expertise please contact our 24-hour Customer Centre or e-mail to health@metoffice.gov.uk.
