We have been asking for feedback on what we could do to improve the customer portal experience and have invested significantly in improving the user interface as a result.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank those involved in the project and announce the changes.
You asked for: The Occupational Health Referral form to be editable following submission to correct errors.
We have: Completed this request. The form is now editable by our admin team so if you do spot an error on the referral form – changes in contact telephone number or email address is the most common – please let us know via email and we can update the referral form for you.
You asked for: Your Occupational Health Screening day offers to be sent through the portal so that you had an audit trail and could be automatically reminded of the upcoming day.
We have: Included this in the booking process, similar to that used by the Occupational Health Referral and health surveillance appointment bookings. Customers will receive the offer through the portal and be able to accept the booking in the same way. This will be visible on the audit trail so you can see who accepted the booking.
You will receive reminder emails one week, one day and one hour before commencement so that you don’t forget!
You asked for: Ease of finding records in different stages of their process.
We have: Changed the User Interface so that you now have buttons for each type of service delivery and can filter by each stage of the process or by all of the type of service.
You asked for: Changes to the email and SMS booking reminder service so that managers were reminded of colleagues’ appointments beforehand so they had time to rearrange if they are on annual leave or absent due to sickness.
We have: Arranged for initial booking appointment emails to be sent to colleagues and their identified managers at the time of the booking, with reminders being sent 7 days, 1 day and 1 hour before the appointment.
Colleagues are reminded of their appointments by SMS 7 days, 1 day and around 1 hour before their appointment.
We hope that this will help to reduce your ‘Did Not Attend’ rates.
You asked for: Specific appointment booking confirmation emails for each appointment type
We have: Implemented this for all colleague booking appointment invites and reminders.
You asked for: Notification of all unread reports so that none get missed
We have: Updated your daily email reminders to include the date range of unread reports which covers all unread reports released in the last 12 months.
We are aware that this has meant that those with multiple site and appointment type permissions have returned from the Bank Holiday weekend with a lot of emails! We have spoken to the Portal Development Team and requested that the stop sending reminder emails to you over the weekend.
Please note that the portal does not recognise Bank Holidays as Bank Holidays at present and so these are likely to continue – please forgive us – the cost of this development outweighs the benefits currently when there are still outstanding requests to work on!
You asked for: A page where you can see all the appointments relating to a single employee.
We have: Developed a ‘client dashboard’ so that you can see all the appointments relating to a single employee, including the outcome of the appointments so you don’t need to open the appointment to review the outcome data.
This is currently in ‘user acceptance testing’ and is due for release by end of September 2024. It will be released in 2 stages: the second a slight improvement that allows you to sort by each column.
You asked for: Health screening and surveillance reports to be released individually in 1 file.
We have: Arranged for the merging of reports onto one file where the reports are for:
- For the same client and customer
- On the same day
- System generated (not uploaded)
- Targeted at the same permissions group (Occupational Health, Health Surveillance, Pre-employment Health Assessment)
Options to merge reports will be available as a bulk download, or individuals.
This is currently in development, and whilst we haven’t seen the prototype on the test system, we understand that it is nearly there! We are hoping that this will be released by the end of September 2024
You asked for: The red flags to be left on the dashboard after downloading the reports.
We have: Arranged for red flags to be automatically added to specific outcome types – eliminating the possibility of omission through user error.
Added an ‘orange flag’ to be used for all abnormalities, where the ‘red flag’ will be used in the future for all fitness to work concerns that need urgent attention.
The flags will remain insitu on the dashboard after the reports have been downloaded.
You will continue to receive immediate notification emails for all red flags but not for the orange ones.
This is currently in development – we haven’t seen the prototype on the test system but are hoping that this will be released by the end of October 2024.
What’s next …
We hope that you are happy with the new look of the portal and are finding it easier to use.
Our customer user interface improvements are not stopping there! We will be working on the following requests (including some of our own) in Quarter 4 2024 and through into 2025:
- Leaver date to be added to the client dashboard so that customers will be able to archive employees directly.
- Customers to be able to edit
- New occupational health referrals to be added by the client dashboard to reduce the amount of inputting by the customer
- Being able to share the Occupational Health referral with the employee through the portal (in a similar way to our consenting process) so we can evidence they have been informed of the reason for referral.
- Being able to share information with the employee through the portal so that we can send GP letters, SARS requests, further supporting information and communication through the portal and evidence receipt
- Reviewing the language of the health surveillance status so that there is a clear difference between annual surveillance, enhanced surveillance and investigations.
If you have any other requests – please contact us to let us know. Whilst we cannot guarantee an immediate fix, we are reviewing all requests to help us improve our services to you.
