Seen every seven weeks, assessed when?
A patient with diabetes comes every seven weeks for routine care. Your podiatrists also offer a fuller annual foot assessment, with its own appointment length, checks and a written summary, and they want patients with diabetes to have one each year where appropriate. Because the patient is in so often, everyone assumes the assessment has been done. When someone checks, it was two years ago.
Other patients with diabetes are seen less often, or only at home, and nobody has a list of who has had an assessment and who has not.
Why annual assessments slip
- The annual assessment and routine care happen for the same patients, so one masks the other.
- The date of the last assessment is in the notes, not in a field the system can use.
- Routine appointments are booked by recall, but the assessment is not.
- The assessment needs a longer slot, which is hard to find at short notice.
- Home visit patients need the assessment planned into a round.
What slipping assessments cost
Patients who do not receive a service your podiatrists believe they should. Summaries not written or not sent. Longer appointments squeezed into routine slots. And a clinic that cannot say how many of its patients with diabetes have had their annual assessment.
| Patient | Routine recall | Annual assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Clinic regular with diabetes | Every few weeks | Separate due date, dedicated slot |
| Home visit patient with diabetes | On the round | Planned into a longer round visit |
| Seen occasionally | When they book | Invited when due |
| Assessment declined | Unchanged | Recorded, invited again next year if your team wishes |
How we build assessment invitations
- Your podiatrists mark which patients should be offered the annual assessment, and the last assessment date is recorded as a field, not only in notes.
- The next due date is calculated, separately from routine recall.
- As the date approaches, the patient, or their booking contact, is invited to a dedicated assessment appointment of the right length.
- For routine regulars, the system suggests replacing or extending an upcoming routine visit, so the patient does not need an extra trip, if your podiatrists agree.
- Home visit patients have the assessment planned into their next round visit, with the longer time allowed.
- The assessment is recorded in a structured template your clinical team designs, and the summary for the patient, and for their GP if your policy includes that, is drafted from it for the podiatrist to approve.
- A list shows patients overdue, and those who declined.
Who should be offered an assessment, what it includes and what the summary says are decided by your podiatrists. The system schedules, records and tracks.
Patients who have their annual diabetic review elsewhere, for example at their GP surgery, can be recorded as such, so they are not invited twice. Your podiatrists decide whether and how to ask for a copy of any results the patient is happy to share.
What you end up with
Every patient your podiatrists want assessed is invited at the right time. Assessments get the time they need. Summaries go out consistently. Home visit patients are included. And the clinic can see, at any time, who is up to date and who is overdue.
Could assessments be slipping in your clinic?
- You could not list patients overdue for their annual diabetic foot assessment.
- The date of the last assessment lives in the notes.
- Assessments are squeezed into routine appointments.
- Home visit patients are rarely given a full assessment.
- Summaries after assessments are not always written or sent.