We have listened to our patients who have told us they want to feel empowered to manage their conditions…. Swansea Bay Patient Portal (PKB) improves the ability of patients to be involved in their own care and have a meaningful dialogue with their clinicians.
Patients Know Best (PKB) is the leading Personal Health Record provider in Wales. It is currently used within both Hywel Dda University Health Board and Swansea Bay University Health Board as well as kidney centres in North Wales and Cardiff. PKB has integrated its digital platform with national data systems in Wales allowing patients in these Health Boards to receive their lab test results, appointment letters and clinic letters instantly within their PKB record.
Once patients have access to their PKB account they can use it to help them self manage their health conditions. Features such as symptom tracking and the journal to regularly monitor their health, medications and test results sections to keep all the information recorded in one place, and linking your health devices such as fitness and blood pressure monitors.
Learn more about our platform capabilities.
NHS Wales App
PKB is the first third party solution to integrate with the NHS Wales App. The integration will be initially available to patients in Swansea Bay before being rolled out across Wales.
This will enable patients to access PKB provided features through their NHS Wales App including test results, symptom tracking, library resources and care plans.
PKB already has the broadest and deepest integration with the NHS England App and is the only personal health record to show clinical data.
How PKB is supporting the National Welsh Government Strategy
As a longitudinal health record, PKB’s platform empowers people to manage their health throughout their life. It offers a unified solution to engage patients aligned with the three pillars of the National Welsh Government Strategy - promote, prevent and prepare for planned care providing a broad range of capabilities to implement priority initiatives including:
Patient Initiated Follow Up
DNA reduction
Waiting Well & Waiting List Validation
Building a Healthier Wales
Decarbonisation Action Plan
Self Supported Management
With one solution across care pathways, it supports efficiencies and cost savings at every stage while educating the patient to self manage and stay out of hospital.
Promote - improved health behaviours
The promote pillar emphasises offering people information and support on healthy eating, physical activity, sleep, mental wellbeing, social connection and minimising harmful substances. PKB provides a platform for health professionals to share advice along with interactive tools for patients to record information and track key health indicators. Our open APIs also enable device integration for patient-provided data:
Teams can use the library feature on PKB to share clinically verified information with patients including leaflets and website links, giving guidance and instructions to empower self-care.
Videos and activities shared in PKB care plans can help patients understand how to stay well and when they should seek support.
Symptom tracking and measurement tracking via devices such as FitBits allow patients to notice changes in their conditions and track their progress towards goals such as sleep, alcohol intake, exercise and more.
Hear how Jenny, an Interstitial Lung Disease nurse is supporting her patients with PKB
The use of PKB has made a significant improvement in the service received by patients requiring drug monitoring and has proven to be a safe and efficient way of receiving care. This avoids clinic appointments, telephone calls, and potential drug dose mistakes as all communicated clearly within a message.
Prevent - worsening health
The prevent pillar looks at people who have been assessed as needing targeted intervention to reduce the risk of deterioration of their condition and keep them out of hospital.
Teams using PKB can give patients the ability to share essential information with healthcare teams via messages, questionnaires and care plans as well as by inputting their health changes in symptom and measurement trackers.
A large proportion of telephone calls from patients were in relation to their blood results. Giving them access to their results through the SBPP has shown a reduction in telephone calls into the department. It has also provided benefits to staff. Communication has been improved by using the portal’s secure messaging feature. This has allowed staff to respond to queries promptly. There is also a written record of the communication.
Library resources and care plans can be used to share videos and activities to promote healthy behaviours and targeted advice.
Monitoring symptoms and side effects with a Symptom Tracker in PKB helps patients understand what’s normal for them and when they need to seek advice and support.
Recording measurements and accessing test results empowers patients to self manage their health and become more educated in how to look after themselves.
Teams can more easily monitor their patients' ongoing conditions using PROMs with the PKB Questionnaires.
Prepare - for treatment and recovery
This pillar provides guidance on supporting people both awaiting treatment and those in recovery.
PKB can be used to validate patients on existing waiting lists as well as support them to wait well and prepare for treatment with information and specialty specific prehab care plans.
During recovery patients can be sent postoperative videos in messages to ensure they have access to advice and explanation about their treatment at a time that suits them. This is underpins with secure messaging, rehab care plans and library resources
Validate those patients on your waiting lists and reduce unnecessary cancellations or DNAs with Questionnaires.
Share important information with your patients pre and post their surgery using the secure messaging within PKB.
Support patients in their pre-op by waiting well, providing all the tools and information they need and helping them to recover quickly post-op using the Care Plan and Library features.