Fertility

Helping to ease growing pains for the UK’s largest fertility group

CARE Fertility is a pioneer in fertility treatment and research, responsible for introducing over 40,000 babies to their forever families.

In response to the growing demand for personalized assisted conception, CARE has been consistently adding to its own family, with state-of-the-art clinics in eight major cities across the UK and Ireland, as well as a growing number of satellite clinics that provide patients with local access to consultations and treatment cycle monitoring.

In 2019, CARE’s leadership team committed itself to finding innovative ways they could standardize processes to deliver an exceptional patient experience across the entire clinic group, even in the face of such rapid growth. The informed consent process was one of their first priorities, which made EngagedMD an ideal match for CARE Fertility.

*“To make treatment education more engaging and convenient for patients, confirming they fully understand their options and risks before beginning treatment.”* ***CARE Fertility Quality Priority Report 2019-2020***

CARE Reduced Informed Consent Appointment Time by 1/2

After a successful trial run in CARE’s Manchester clinic, we developed a standard onboarding process for new and existing clinics and by the end of the year, EngagedMD was being used in the majority of CARE locations. With the EngagedMD platform, CARE clinics are now using the same process, the same educational materials, and the same forms for informed consent. One common challenge for all CARE clinics before making the switch to electronic education and consent was the amount of time staff spent processing and reviewing volumes of paper forms in person with each patient. By giving patients unlimited access to the education materials and ample time on their own to digest information, CARE’s patients and partners are better prepared for meaningful consultations, resulting in shorter consent appointments for everyone involved.

The staff couldn’t be more full of praise for EngagedMD . The feedback that we get from patients and the desire from staff to utilize the system is great to see. They’ve grabbed it with both hands.

The shift from paper to electronic processes also changed the way patients view CARE clinics. “The way the entire system works together to provide a fluid process between patients and administrative staff has been a real game-changer”, says Jo Day, Group Administration Lead for CARE Fertility. What used to be mustard envelopes full of paper forms is now a sleek, easy to use portal accessible to patients and staff throughout the country.

‍

Before EngagedMD	Today
Rapid growth meant leadership was constantly having conversations around issues of standardization and innovation.	Our workflow management experts worked closely with the CARE team to identify best practices that could be standardized across the group.
The acquisition of existing clinics created greater inconsistency in patient education because each clinic had its own process	EngagedMD's video education modules, customized to reflect language and practices unique to UK clinics, provide consistent patient education to support in-person consultations.
While all clinics used mandatory HFEA forms, most clinics also had unique in-house forms, creating redundancies and inefficiencies due to the sheer volume of forms.	Our library of current HFEA forms was immediately accessible to all CARE clinics. The CARE team took advantage of this project to slim down the number of unique in-house forms and our Customer Success team digitized them for standard use.
CARE Fertility had invested in a proprietary EMR for use in all clinics. Any new technology had to integrate with it seamlessly.	Not a problem. Our API made it possible to transfer data directly from the EngagedMD consent forms to the patient’s record in their EMR.
While expansion was clicking along, patients living far from a CARE clinic were still having to travel into a clinic or use the post to complete and submit paperwork.	Organization and delivery of consent forms through the platform and the ability to sign and submit them electronically save patients (and staff ) time, travel and expense.
Increased patient volume meant more staff time spent on mandatory HFEA reporting.	EngagedMD's platform includes a tool for automatic HFEA Registry reporting, freeing up valuable staff time and keeping the clinic compliant.