ReferAll and Xn Leisure have been collaborating for the past eight years, allowing Xn Leisure to seamlessly integrate GP referrals into its Leisure Management Solution software.
Jason Watts, Sales Director at Xn Leisure, explains: “An opportunity came through the tender portal, which required an exercise referral scheme as part of our software offer – something we hadn’t previously done. We knew we needed to engage a reputable company and opted to form a partnership with ReferAll, based on MD Stuart Stokes’ extensive knowledge of the sector.”
Watts believes partnering with ReferAll has been a huge benefit for Xn’s customers, because of the knowledge they have.
“The team’s healthcare sector background and awareness of the wellness arena – and their willingness to share that – is huge. What ReferAll offer and deliver for the customer is above and beyond.”
The companies worked together to integrate their two systems, with the end goal of a turnkey solution where the customer could roll out Xn’s Leisure Management Solution with ReferAll’s Exercise Referral Solution seamlessly integrated in the middle.
“We had to be very careful with the integration; we focussed on keeping it relevant, as ReferAll handles patient information, so we needed a way to extract activities data for reporting, while keeping medical data segregated,” explains Watts. “It’s a unique collaboration piece. We gave ReferAll access to our API test area and they completed integration easily. It meant that, when we went on to deliver joint business, ReferAll were independent and could install their solution quickly and efficiently. The two systems communicate so operators can extract all the reporting data they might need.”
This has become a key factor in the company’s continuous work together.
“Generally, when collaborating with third parties, testing and integration work is required before sign off which can take a few months delaying the customer’s go-live date. With ReferAll we don’t need to worry; they did such a good job in the early weeks that in any future integrations they’ve been self-sufficient – they just install their software and let us know when it’s done!” says Watts.To date, Xn Leisure has implemented over one hundred integrated solutions which include ReferAll’s embedded solution. So, what does all this mean for operator customers?
“The USP is that there’s very little wait at all for the customer,” says Watts. “ I genuinely cannot think of any negatives.”
From an operational perspective, the partnership means leisure centres can offer healthcare referred customers a seamless journey. Watts explains. “If you’re a patient and you’re referred for activity at a local leisure centre, then without the ReferAll solution your Xn membership journey effectively doesn’t start at all. Your referral would remain completely separate from our software, effectively lost to the system and it all becomes a much slower process.
“You have to either manually deliver your information to leisure staff or wait for your GP or healthcare professional GP to email the exercise referral team. Sometimes it’s still done by fax! Once contacted by the exercise referral team member, an initial appointment could take much longer, with the referral data needing to be manually input into our software which causes additional admin and compromises customer experience.
The partnership with ReferAll takes that away.
Exercise referrals can be securely received as a referral request. The patient can be contacted swiftly and is offered an initial appointment, all via text message or email if this is a preferred contact method.
During the initial appointment, the referral automatically talks to the ReferAll part of the system and a unique identifier is created, which this is picked up by Xn’s solution. “All the staff member has to do is add the patient to the course, induction or session,” says Watts. “No data input, no human error, no frustrations, no incorrect data being reported. Even pre-questionnaire completion can be completed in ReferAll prior to the appointment. All the pain is taken away. Within weeks the leisure centres take it for granted and don‘t know how they operate without it.”
Shared reporting means operators can access exactly how many sessions a patient attended and share this with the healthcare professional for follow up. This evidential data can also be used for funding applications. “Data like this is so important for funding,” says Watts.
“If the data’s not there to prove the scheme is working, then future funding is at risk. For leisure operators, proving their worth and showing they make a real difference has never been more important. There’s increasing evidence that being fit and active is crucial for helping us to beat coronavirus and if struggling operators can prove they achieve those outcomes; they’re strengthening their eligibility to gain access to funding.”
Moving forwards, Xn is planning to work with ReferAll to enhance the integration and upgrade the integration platform, to strengthen the shared knowledge within customers’ accounts.