• Dr. Thom to be first to use unedited patient feedback streamed online
  • Real-time feedback to be utilised to advance Lloydspharmacy’s online doctor services

iWantGreatCare, the online patient recommendation site, has announced a new partnership with Lloydspharmacy Online and Dr. Thom. With an objective of creating an ongoing patient focus group, the partnership will provide real time data directly from Lloydspharmacy Online and Dr. Thom users to help progress the service provided.

iWantGreatCare automatically approaches all users 48 hours after they have made a purchase, asking them to rate the service for the quality of their questions, understanding, ease of use and whether they would recommend it.

Committed to true transparency within their service, Lloydspharmacy Online and Dr. Thom will also be the first in the UK to launch the feedback as a live, unedited twitter feed, giving patients access to what is being said about them.

Rachel Carrell, CEO of Dr Thom and the Lloyds Online Doctor service, said, ““Great patient care will come from listening to what people are saying and responding to it, not trying to control what they say. I’m confident we’ll continue to get great feedback from our patients, however if a single patient is unhappy, I want to know about it. Not only does this system give insight on a company-wide level but also means that specific issues can be isolated and resolved in real time.”

Dr Neil Bacon, co-founder and CEO of iWantGreatCare, commented, “Dr Thom and the Lloyds Online Doctor service approached iWantGreatCare with a real commitment to improving their service and using patient feedback as a metric of quality. The positive response so far will build trust with users and morale amongst employees whilst criticism can be immediately acted upon. Ultimately, our feedback analysis allows these providers to listen robustly and continuously to their patients, ensuring their service is as effective as possible.”

Carrell continued, “We’re committed to a transparency policy, and the new live feedback feed will make sure patients remain our top priority.  It’s a slightly risky strategy, but we think it’ll be worth it. There’s no better way to keep ourselves completely in tune with our patients, especially as an online healthcare provider where it is sometimes difficult to develop trust between patient and provider. Placing our feedback on twitter and delivering it as a live and unedited feed is the perfect way to use social media to build trust and show our customers that our priority is providing a service which always puts them first. Along with iWantGreatCare, we want to lead innovation in healthcare and bring the pharmacy into the online era.”

After the three month trial period, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with Dr Thom receiving 87% positive reviews and Lloyds Online Doctor receiving 91%. Given anonymously, the comments highlight areas of strength and weakness:

29th April 2012 – ‘Online doctor was very helpful and informative. Much easier than making and waiting for appointment with GP.’

 

25th January 2012 – ‘The only criticism I have of this service is that the pharmacy that is selected to complete the prescription does not always check the system and as such the time delay is exacerbated’

 

12th January 2012 – ‘It was reassuring that a thorough medical questionnaire had to be completed prior to a prescription being issued. The process was easy and non intrusive. Will continue to use the service.’

The pilot scheme has been running for 3 months, further responses can be found at the following links:

https://www.iwantgreatcare.org/en/services/lloyds-online-doctor#page/23

https://www.iwantgreatcare.org/en/services/dr-thom#page/6

 

ENDS

For further information please contact:

 Joshua Van Raalte or Jack Davies

Brazil (PR agency for iWantGreatCare.org)

jackd@agencybrazil.com

0207 785 7383

 

About Lloydspharmacy & Dr. Thom

Dr Thom aims to bring the internet to healthcare, years after it’s already been brought to everything else. We’re a reputable, fast-growing and successful online doctor service which has helped over 300,000 patients since 2007. It’s a simple business model:  our doctors review online assessments filled out by patients, then prescribe if it’s appropriate. We offer a carefully-selected range of services including contraception, cystitis treatments, medications for erectile dysfunction and hair loss, malaria tablets, travel vaccinations, and home tests for a variety of sexually transmitted infections.

 

All of these can be safely prescribed online and we’re registered with the Care Quality Commission, which is the body that regulates all private and NHS healthcare providers in the UK. Our patients love us because we are discreet, efficient and responsive – and by using us, they don’t have to interrupt their busy lives to go to the doctor, or announce what they need in a crowded local pharmacy.

About Lloydspharmacy

Dr Thom is owned 100% by Lloydspharmacy.  Lloydspharmacy has over 1650 pharmacies across the UK, based predominantly in community and health centre locations.  The company employs over 17,000 staff and dispenses over 151 million prescription items annually.  Dr Thom provides an Online Doctor service which is branded Lloydspharmacy, in addition to the original Dr Thom service.

About iWantGreatCare:

iWantGreatCare.org (IWGC) is the only independent source of information in the UK enabling patients to choose a doctor based on the experience and opinion of fellow patients.

IWGC works with healthcare organisations which strive to be world-leaders in delivering the very best patient experience by providing independent, real-time understanding of the patient experience in a way proven to improve performance.

Visitors to iWantGreatCare.org rate their doctor using three measurements known to relate to better healthcare outcomes: Do you trust this doctor? Does this doctor listen? and Would you recommend this doctor?