Since the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate in Australia, the state of NSW has had the greatest number of cases. The volume of tests for COVID-19 being carried out by NSW Health Pathology has risen sharply. Previously, it took around a week or more to deliver test results to the patients, due to the unprecedented number of tests being carried out.
The automated SMS patient result notification service produced by NSW Health Pathology has sought to reduce the time and burden on hospital and lab staff in manually contacting patients with results. This service helps patients receive COVID-19 test results securely and quickly within 24 hours of lab testing. Patients can now choose to sign up for an automated SMS service or opt-in to access their result through the Service NSW App.
Rapid adoption of the service by the community has provided them with faster results, relieved pressure on staff to focus on critical duties and provided greater data to support the tracking and response to the virus. The ability to deliver faster results to patients has also resulted in quickly lowering their anxiety. Since its launch, over 90,000 patients have now registered and received results via this service with numbers rising daily.
It also means people can end self-isolation sooner, and for those employed in delivering essential services, such as healthcare workers, they can get back to work faster. The new service has also reduced the volume of calls to hospital staff, allowing them to return to critical roles caring for the sick.
