Dr Ewan O’Farrell, associate medical director at Livi, shares some hints and tips for practices looking to gain QOF points.
With the programme for both Covid boosters and flu jabs well underway, practices will be busy.
These initiatives are crucial sources of income for practices, rather like the QOF, the voluntary annual reward and incentive programme for GP practices.
Introduced in the 1990s, the main objective of QOF is to drive up the quality of primary care. It indicates the overall achievement of a surgery through a points system where practices score points according to the care they deliver. The aim is to provide high-quality care across a range of areas for which surgeries score points – the higher the score, the higher the financial reward for the practice.
So, what can you do to ensure your practice does all it can to hit QOF?
1) Think about seasonal QOF
There are various seasonal illnesses and conditions to focus on throughout the year to help hit QOF targets. For example, think about Asthma in allergy seasons and obesity and pre-diabetes over the festive period.
As winter progresses, you’ll see patients with symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and other mental health issues, which you can assign to QOF codes.
2) Treating QOF as mandatory
Despite being a voluntary programme, many practices see QOF as mandatory. Certainly, practices that run as sustainable businesses think about hitting QOF targets in everyday practice life.
Successful and high-performing practices ensure the whole practice team is aware of QOFs importance and embeds the work into the practice culture as much as possible.
3) Utilise technology wherever possible
Using a tried and tested patient messaging service can help practices to improve QOF results.
Mjog by Livi’s batch messaging and remote monitoring questionnaires enable practices to engage with patients that have particular needs and help to manage long-term conditions.
Integrated with all leading clinical systems, Mjog by Livi ensures information flow is seamless, secure and meets objectives for QOF, and is a quick, easy and secure way to collect patient data. Find out more, here.
To find out how Mjog by Livi can help your practice and to request a demo, please email [email protected]. If you’re an existing customer, our great product and features are accessible when you log in to our platform.
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