You’ve had your scan, so what happens next? In this episode Charlotte explores the next steps after your scan, all the way from receiving your results to understanding their implications. 

You’ll hear again from Hannah Pither at the patient management centre about their role and protocols for ensuring results reach your GP promptly and securely. 

Then GP, Dr. Tim Breese explains why it’s key your results are delivered to you by your GP and not  PML.

If you have any extra questions about your appointment or referral to PML you can get in touch with the team via the Physiological Measurements website physiologicalmeasurements.com

Episode 5 From Scan to results - what happens after your appointment Transcription

Welcome to the Physiological Measurements podcast for patients who've been referred for an appointment for a scan. I'm Charlotte Foster and I've been taking a look behind the scenes at head office in Shropshire, as well as speaking to one of the sonographers who works in one of the clinics. Throughout this series, I'll be finding out just who PML are, the work they do and what you can expect as a patient. In this episode, we're looking at what happens when it comes to getting your results.

To start explaining the process from PML's side of things, I've been speaking to Hannah Pither from the patient management centre. So, from the PMC side of things, what happens when the results come back?

Yes, good question. So, our results are available on our IPMC two system.

Which is?

So. The IPMC two system is our bespoke patient management system. It's accessed by our patient administrators in the call centre, but also the sonographers out in the field, so that when they upload those results to the patient file, it is automatically accessed by our patient administrators in the PMC team. When the results become available, we ensure that results are returned to GP practices within two to five working days. It's really important that we maintain within this timeline. Any urgent findings, any what we call red and amber results are returned on the same working day of the appointment. Any patients who are referred urgently by their doctor, their results are also returned on the same working day, so to ensure that we're not delaying that patient pathway at all. For any green routine reports, they all go through a stringent reviewing process. So, to ensure that results are returned to the correct GP practice, we review their referral, we cross check and ensure that their result will be returned to their correct doctor. All of our results are sent via email to the doctor's surgery.

So they're not actually sent to our patients, but patients can request their result from their doctor, should they require it. Alternatively, they can access their own patient records from PML by putting in a subject access request form known as an SAR, which can be accessed on our website.

So you won't be speaking to patients to deliver their results? That's the job of the GP.

Exactly. So we are there as just the middleman. We are there to deliver that result to the GP.

So if a patient is waiting for their results and they think, oh, hang on, this is taking a bit longer than I anticipated, how do they go about chasing those results?

100%. And patients can contact us, like I said, about anything to do with their scans. So if they contact their PMC, their patient management centre and just explain they're just chasing their results. One of our call handlers can access their file and determine when that result was sent, you know, down to the time and date and confirm the GP practice. We would then advise the patient to contact their GP to ensure that they have received that result and if they have any problems at all, to contact us directly.

Thank you very much.

You're very welcome.

So, as we've heard, the results are taken from PML and they get sent to your GP. So I thought I'd talk to Doctor Tim Breese again about what happens when he gets the results from PML.

The results are normally emailed to the practice and then scanned onto my computer to view by the practice staff. The results are very straightforward. They give a coding system green for no issue detected, an amber where there is some abnormality and it is either up to myself or a cardiologist to decide if further action is needed. And more importantly, there is a red coding, which indicates that there is a serious issue. Now, these results obviously do need immediate action and PML do telephone a clinician within the practice to let them know that there is a serious issue detected and further action is required urgently. So that normally would involve an urgent referral to a cardiologist or in the very worst cases, even admission that day. So the coding system is generally very straightforward. Often there is a comment at the bottom of the report as well that is clear and concise, giving also some backup to whatever result the technician has, has detected.

So it's all generally quite straightforward. I've generally found a very good service over the years.

Why is it so important that it's you as a GP in general, not just you personally? Why is it important that gps are the ones that are looking at the results and making these decisions and then delivering those results to your patients rather than. Because I know what it's like when I go to have a scan or something. You want to know straight away what's going on, don't you? You know, you try and have a look. I don't know what any of the stuff means. When I've had ultrasounds, I've looked and gone, oh, can't see a thing, don't know. But I want to have a look. I want to know what's going on. So why is it so important that it's you as the GP that are delivering these results?

It's myself that has referred the patient, so understand what the clinical context is. I also would understand, or at least have some indication of what the patient's feelings would be about further investigation. Some patients really wouldn't want it anyway. Every patient's different, and I think patients like continuity.

Yeah, absolutely. You're very right with that. In these days when you can't always necessarily get the same GP for your appointment, it's. I've been known to wait an extra week for an appointment to get the GP that I want to see.

The problem is, if it's not the referring GP that's done it, although probably the end result will be the same, it's not terribly satisfactory for the patient. Patients do like continuity of care, and it saves a lot of time, really, rather than having to go through all the story yet again.

Fabulous. Well, thank you so much. I really do appreciate your time, Tim. Thank you.

That's a pleasure.

Thank you to my guests for spending time with me today, and thank you for listening to this episode of the Physiological Measurements podcast. I hope you enjoyed it and you found it useful. You can find out more and get in touch with the team by visiting the website physiologicalmeasurements.com.