Page 90 - RADC 2020

HEALTH
My
Healthcare
Hub
Maj V Brown, SO2 DPHC Primary Medical Care Standards
Mr J-P Nellist, C2 Joint Medical Group SharePoint Administrator
In the early stages of COVID-19 lockdown, it became apparent that many of Defence Primary Healthcare’s (DPHC) patients
may be located away from their regular healthcare facility and DPHC risked losing all ability to communicate with them. Following initial research, it became evident that there was no viable way to communicate securely in the midst of
the pandemic, so we needed to create a platform to allow this. A team from Joint Medical Group (JMG) gathered to crack this problem and My Healthcare Hub was launched 6 weeks after inception
of concept. The team, led by a Dental Officer, drew expertise from across various departments and included a graphic designer, clinicians from all pillars of health and the ihub’s SharePoint lead.
Owing to restrictions on the type of information being published, Medical Centre addresses, and telephone numbers from around the world, the content had
to sit somewhere secure like the Defence Gateway rather than the internet. The Defence Gateway is good in that the DLE training is housed on there so almost
all MOD staff already have an account. Protection of information was a big concern
and it felt crucial that DPHC shouldn’t have sight of usernames on items like patient satisfaction questionnaires. This meant that various lists were given limited permissions to only a small group of non-DPHC administrators and responses passed on only when they had been anonymised.
The site is built on the SharePoint 2013 platform but a key requirement was that it
couldn’t just look like a MOD SharePoint site; this is patient facing content and not a unit homepage. Design features from civilian websites were deployed in order to keep a simple but engaging look with functionality across. Simplicity is a key feature given
the site can be accessed on desktop computers, tablets, phones, etc, and across all browsers and operating systems.
My Healthcare Hub provides our
serving patient population with a wealth
of information about DPHC services and facilities: it is a one-stop-shop for all primary healthcare information. Our patients can now make medical appointments or search for their local Medical Centre from their smartphone, wherever they are located. This is the first site of its kind and has transformed how we communicate with our patients. Approximately 20,000 users visited the site in the first 7 weeks, showing there is a demand for the information.
There is still a lot of potential to develop My Healthcare Hub further, including developing the ability for our non-serving patients to access this information, and we look forward to expanding this hugely useful platform to benefit our patients.
88 RADC BULLETIN 2020