NELFT have realised savings of 64%

See our recent case study with North East London NHS Foundation Trust where we have successfully delivered a 64% saving by implementing our hybrid mail solution.

Client:

North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT)

Original state:

The Estates/Facilities Department has responsibility to process all mail required by the trust. This is currently carried out via several methods – post rooms at some sites with franking machines being used along with labels, various providers and limited tracking.

Remote sites using postage stamps and various sized envelopes and, in some areas, old templates. Sites using various collection services.

Objective:

To eliminate physical letters where possible in favour of an email, SMS or WhatsApp communication solution.

The desired objective is to reduce operational overheads, improve the patient journey and reduce administration costs.

The solution will enable the authority to compose, manage, print and finish mail in such a way that associated overheads are significantly reduced, the mail production process becomes more streamlined, and documents are managed in a controlled environment, significantly reducing paper usage in line with the NHS Paperless/Paperlite requirements.

This form of communication increases the secure delivery of appointment letters and results for those who wish to be notified via these methods.

Objective overview:

• Implement a hybrid mail solution to maximise cashable and soft savings

• Increase the number of electronic forms of communication with service users

• To reduce ‘Did Not Attends’ (DNAs) at appointments

• Free up valuable clinician and admin staff time to focus on clinical care

• Improve IG security and workflow

Summary of cash realising savings:

In the last 12 months the trust has sent 726,065 letters. A 2nd Class postage stamp costing £0.66 (as of January 2021) plus paper, print, envelope, toner and copy costs bring the average cost price of a posted letter to £0.75 each.

With the implementation of hybrid mail, along with the strategy of migrating 50% of communications to a digital, ‘paper light’, solution, we could see an annual saving of up to £350,000 per annum.

Circa 60% savings available from current spend

• Reduce stamps and franking

• Reduce stationery spend

• Reduce paper and envelopes

• Reduce toner and ink spend

• Reduce toner and click charges from MPS provider

• Reduce printer fleet

• Reduce franking machines and associated costs

• Opportunity to reclaim VAT

Summary of soft savings:

DNAs (Did Not Attend) are reported to cost the NHS over £200 billion a year, so it is an important challenge for trusts to keep this rate as low as possible.

The average DNA rate was recorded as 8.8% with each missed appointment costing the NHS an average of £154. NHS organisations that have migrated to hybrid mail have seen an 80% reduction of DNA rate to 1.76%.

In addition, there can be further soft cost savings with a reduction in staffing costs and operational overheads. See the table below:

Example of cash realising savings to be achieved:

Example of total savings to be achieved:

Provide a secure encrypted eProc platform

• Integrate with Patients Know Best portal

• Send documents from staff’s desktop to the customer

• Transmit all post to the mail server remotely

• Integrate with the authority’s in-house applications with an API that will retain existing mail composition and templates

• Validate all post against a Royal Mail database to ensure the letter is delivered to the correct address

• Obtain postage discount rates available for Royal Mail Business Mail service

• Print letters without the need and cost of desktop printers or copiers

• Deliver mail to the authority’s customers without franking or using stamps

• Track and monitor mail from creation to delivery

• Provide an authorisation process

• Ensure full job integrity, audit trail and track and trace through Royal Mail MailMark

• Automatically archive all printed jobs so they can be viewed and pre-printed

• Reduce the number of vendors

• Standardise and simplify workflow

Summary of operational improvements:

With the implementation of hybrid mail we will see huge operational benefits. There are members of staff, including clinical staff, who spend a considerable amount of time printing and stuffing envelopes ready to be sent out to patients. With the eradication of these duties staff will be freed up to carry out other more specialist duties as required.

Additional tasks that are carried out that take hours out of a working day will be completed in a click of a button. For example, printing and sending board papers. As these packs can be hundreds of pages long, a member of staff can spend hours in front of a printer that cannot be left unattended due to the confidential nature of the papers. By sending this to the secure print house to be produced and sent via courier, it will save a considerable amount of staff time.

Where there is a requirement to send mass communications to all staff, suppliers or patients, this can be completed in the click of a button rather than tens of staff sitting down for days printing, folding and stuffing letters into envelopes.

Our hybrid mail solution comes with evidence of reductions in Did Not Attends (DNA) at appointments with built-in functions such as appointment date check to letter delivery check. Personalised maps can be included in letters to help patients attend their appointment in a timely manner.

In the scoping phase, both parties jointly identified the main issues with the current state to understand if the BSG solution was a good fit. The Trust identified the following key areas of value in the BSG solution:

• Increase staff productivity by removing the multiple tasks required to post a letter

• Remove and reduce printer device leasing costs over the contract period

• Consolidate all leasing to one contract and one bill

• Recharge to correct budget holder

• Increase the professional image of the
  Trust by having uniformed, highly qualified communications with standard templates across all services

• Free-up valuable clinician and admin staff time to focus on other tasks

• Higher SLA in place for patient care communication

• The ability to reclaim VAT

• Live track and trace of all outbound mail

• Carbon neutral solution

As you can see, implementing a hybrid mail - and in particular a digital mail - solution can have a huge impact on an organisation’s sustainability goals, amongst many other benefits.

At The BSG, we’re committing to a sustainable future by making four main pledges.

See our sustainability page to learn more about our environmental values and our CO2 offsetting plan.