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QI snapshot: Virtual group consultations for LARC counselling
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- QI Improving Patient Experience and Outcomes
- QI Digital Automation and IT Systems
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Our QI Snapshots provide a quick bite-sized summary from teams we've assisted. Read below for a quick take on how the iCaSH service developed group video consultations to reduce waiting times.
Improvement Name: Development of Virtual Group Consultations for LARC Counselling
Date: January 2024
Deep Dive:
Problem: Currently the iCaSH service have long waiting times for coil and implant procedures.
Goal: Develop more efficient ways of consulting patients to reduce waiting times.
Currently a patient requesting a procedure for a coil or impant requires a prior telephone consultation. The purpose of this consultation is to complete an individual medical history and flag up any complications that may be relevant to the procedure or method chosen.
Secondly, the consultation allows us to counsel the patients fully on the method, including pros, cons and possible side effects. This allows the patient to ensure they are choosing the right method for them prior to the procedure.
Our aim is to eliminate the initial 30-minute nurse telephone consultation and instead replace it with the patients providing the medical history themselves through our online portal and then attending a virtual group consultation for the counselling element.
Design:
Development of group consultations to allow multiple patients to attend online at the same time, reducing the amount of time spent on the counselling appointments overall.
Patients will self-fill medical history online in advance - using the online POP portal already in place.
Deliver:
Begin to run some Virtual group consultations and see if it saves time and if patient satisfaction also improves as a result of shorter waiting times for procedures.
Results:
We have now successfully run s2 virtual group consultations for implant counselling. Patients were able to use the portal to self-fill the medical history and these were then inputted into the notes by the clinician. The group consultations themselves then went ahead to cover the counselling element and both lasted approximately 15-20 minutes.
Total time including the prior admin work, group consult itself and post admin work equates to approximately 15 minutes per patient, which is half the amount of time we previously needed.
Evolve
As a result of running these initial groups, we have now cleared the implant waiting list and are moving to a direct in approach. We aim to increase the number of patients in each virtual group as we get more confident so waiting times for each element will reduce further. Once these are running regularly and smoothly we will begin working on the coil waiting list to reach a similar point.
Lessons learnt:
It took a long time to get the IT set up in place which delayed the start. We had some initial teething issues with the online forms, but that seems to have been fully resolved now.
You can find more information about the iCaSH service and their QI snapshot below.
Download the full Snapshot here
If you'd like to dive into examples of projects, head to our Case Studies page for inspiration.
Last reviewed:
1 March, 2025