Today is Clean Air Day 2024 which this year highlights cars and vans as the biggest source of toxic chemicals in our air, according to official data. They call on the next government to make sure that everyone can travel in ways that are better for our health and planet (more details can be found at https://www.cleanairhub.org.uk/clean-air-day). Travel for healthcare is a key contributor, as the NHS is responsible for 4-5% of total UK carbon emissions (BMA, 2023), and digital tools can play a big part to help reduce the need for it.
It’s caused me to reflect on the journey that brought me to Patients Know Best. As a Project Manager and Sustainability Officer, I am passionate about making a tangible difference. Today I want to share why I chose to work for PKB, why I joined the Sustainability Team and highlight the positive impact we’re making together with our customers.
Discovering a passion for sustainability
Writing my dissertation on Sustainable Project Management for my Masters in Project Management made me wonder why there was very little progress made within this field generally. Project Management has always been about delivering benefits, so surely lasting benefits towards the environment and the planet should also be delivered as standard. This thought stuck with me as I graduated from University and began to search for my first project to make a real difference to society. However, I didn’t want to work for any organisation. I wanted to work somewhere that genuinely makes a difference and stands by its values to deliver sustainable change, something I became very passionate about.
Continuing my passion for sustainability with PKB
During my job search, I discovered Patients Know Best (PKB), a Net-Zero, B-Corp certified Social Enterprise delivering data directly to the patient to empower them to make decisions and achieve better health outcomes. I immediately began to research more about this organisation and discovered that its CEO, Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, was awarded the status of Ashoka Changemaker Fellow in recognition of being a world leading social entrepreneur. These values sat closely with mine as the principles of Ashoka were embedded into my Masters Degree and inspired me to focus on Sustainable Project Management. It quickly became clear that this was an organisation that actually lived by its values and it was evident at every level.
I joined the London regional team, led by the wonderful Gary O’Connell, and I’m currently project managing the deployment of PKB at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. Working at PKB is amazing because of the supportive company culture where everyone can fulfil their potential and work towards subjects they are passionate about. This is why I got the opportunity to also be part of PKB’s sustainability team, where I have been involved in supporting our own efforts to calculate our annual carbon footprint, reduce our emissions where possible, and offset via carbon removal methods to maintain our Net Zero status. PKB has been Net Zero since 2021 and it is important for us to continue this work whilst looking for new innovative ways to further develop this sustainability strategy and showcase our learnings with partner organisations including NHS England, the Health Innovation Network, and Digital Health London.
PKB is proud of the sustainability achievements that healthcare organisations using PKB have made – helping to make paper obsolete, reduce face-to-face consultations, facilitate self-care, and ensure that medical data is accessible to all. In addition to being Net Zero, PKB is also driving sustainability powered by a clear social purpose. Recognising our ambitions as an innovative social enterprise, we became a Certified B Corporation in September 2015. PKB is featured in the list of businesses that earned scores in the top 10% of more than 2,500 Certified B Corporations globally on the B Impact Assessment. The assessment measures a company’s positive impact on its workers, community, customers and the environment.
How our customers are using PKB to reduce carbon emissions
We have been working hard to support the NHS on its journey to Net Zero, and as of the end of 2023, PKB has supported over 2.5 million letters being sent digitally, rather than physically, avoiding 342t CO2e that would have otherwise polluted our air.
Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is a great example. The Trust identified an opportunity to enhance efficiency by implementing a digital pathway for data collection, which would enable certain assessments to be conducted over the phone or eliminated altogether. This enabled them to save 2.1t CO2e over an eight month period where they also avoided sending 183,258 physical letters, avoiding an additional 25.1t CO2e.
In terms of facilitating self-care, organisations using a consolidated PKB health record with its full range of features, can provide their patients with everything they need to safely manage their care remotely, whilst knowing that help is at hand if needed. Functionality in PKB such as Care Plans, Messaging, Medications, Test Results, Symptom Tracking, Journal and Library support the patient to care for themselves and reduce hospital attendance.
Here’s how one customer is using our tools to further the cause while improving the patient’s experience. The team at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust recently won a HSJ Digital Award for transforming their post-op follow up care by using PKB’s messaging service to send personalised video messages to patients. Traditionally about 50% of patients require clinical assessment around 4-6 weeks after surgery. The remaining cohort, however, are seen for reassurance. The pilot assessment indicated that using the video model meant only about 15% of this reassurance cohort would still need a follow-up appointment versus 75% using the legacy approach. This all helps to reduce the need for unnecessary patient travel.
What comes next?
I have now worked for PKB for over a year and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. We will continue to work on reducing our own carbon footprint to maintain our status as Net Zero whilst also supporting the NHS and other healthcare organisations on their own journey to Net Zero. There is always more that can be done, and Clean Air Day 2024 is one of a number of annual days dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of protecting the environment.
If you would like to know more about how PKB supports the NHS on its road to Net Zero, or more about PKB’s own sustainability journey and Carbon Reduction Plan, then please visit https://patientsknowbest.com/green/.