Narrator: This podcast is intended to support UK health

care professionals with education.

The information provided in this podcast is not a substitute for professional

medical advice or treatment, and patients are encouraged to consult

health care providers, including nurses, for any medical questions or concerns.

Hannah: Welcome to Stoma and Continence Conversations from Coloplast Professional,

where healthcare professionals and experts by experience discuss the latest

hot topics in the worlds of stoma, continence care and specialist practice.

I'm Hannah Patterson.

I've worked in specialist care and I'm currently the ostomy care associate

education manager at Coloplast.

This time we are asking what does a good DAC look like?

Karla: We run Healthcare Professional, what we call experience days.

So we have nurses coming in to do call listening and see

the service in real life.

Everybody who comes in is blown away by the passion to really deliver on that.

They can see the difference that they've made to a patient's life.

Hannah: Hello and welcome to the podcast.

Today I am lucky enough to be joined by one of my Coloplast colleagues, Karla.

Hi Karla, how are you?

Good morning, Hannah.

Yes, good.

Thank you.

Excited to join you this morning.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Now, Karla will attest, I have been chasing Karla around for

quite some time to join me to record a podcast, haven't I, Karla?

Just a little.

Now, I'm not going to steal your thunder here.

If you could tell us and the listeners a little bit about what your job

role is within Coloplast, please.

Karla: Yeah, so my job are really focusing on Coloplast Charter and developing

the service and listening to our HCP customers and also our, their patients,

our customers as well, in terms of what they want from a good DAC and what service

they want and ensure that we can work together to deliver that for everybody.

Hannah: Fantastic.

Now, I know you mentioned DAC there, and I mentioned DAC in the introduction.

So, what exactly is a DAC?

Karla: Well, I guess in its most simplified form, it's like a pharmacy.

So, nurses will register their patients with a DAC to ensure that they get the

products that are right for them, that the nurses think are most suitable.

And then, simply, a DAC is really like a pharmacy, so we

will dispense the products.

To the patient.

So we work with the GP.

to get the prescription and make sure that the patients have the

right products at the right time.

So that's its most simplified form, I think.

Hannah: And if only it was that simple, hey?

Karla: Yes, lots goes into that.

It makes it sound very easy, but there's a lot going on under the bonnet.

Hannah: Absolutely.

So roughly how many people are there working?

within the charter section of Coloplast?

Karla: Oh gosh, well there's a lot of different teams, so obviously we

have the main, what we would call the customer care team, where they're

liaising with patients on the phones, taking orders, and following up

any queries on their prescriptions.

And we also have a team who will liaise with GPs, a team that liaises

with healthcare professionals, digital teams, marketing teams, and of course,

really important team, our team in the warehouse actually ensuring that

the products are packed correctly and delivered safely to the, to the patient.

If it's a stoma bag, they do the stoma bag cutting there as well.

So there's also a team who are doing the actual, uh, stoma bag cutting, and that's

quite, quite a busy team there as well.

So a lot of people are involved in delivering the service to patients.

Wouldn't really like to put a number on it.

Hannah: And you said that there's almost like a timeline as it goes through, so the

call comes in from either the HCP or the customer, or I know we do online requests

as well, aren't they, that patients can put in online requests as well?

Karla: Yeah, we try and keep, here at Coloplast Charter, we try and keep

order and delivery as flexible and as easy as possible so that patients can

help it fit into their life really.

So yes, we've got a big team who talk to patients over the phone, but we're also

lucky enough to have a great website, so that means that patients can order their

products at the right time for them.

So if they get up in the morning and they're changing their bag and they

realize that they're down to their last however many, rather than waiting

for us to open or for, to get a call.

They can obviously go online and place their own order.

So it's just about taking away a little bit of pressure and just making

it a little bit easier for people.

So yeah, it's great, uh, great resource to have actually.

Hannah: Absolutely.

I mean, I'm thinking my own experiences.

When I'm ordering my repeat medication, you can guarantee it's

only about 10 o'clock at night that I realized that I need to order it.

There's no way that I will remember by the next morning to do it or have

the time to do it by the next morning.

And having that ability to be able to order your repeat prescription

online is so useful because everyone does lead such busy lives.

And also it's just having that flexibility to do when you think about it as well,

because I'm one of those people, I don't do something when I'm thinking about it.

It's gone.

Karla: Exactly the same and then it creates pressure and worry for the

patient and also that can come back on the HCP if the patient's getting down

to their last few bags or products and it becomes all very urgent.

So yeah, it's just helping people fit their routine into their lives rather

than the other way around really.

Absolutely.

Just trying to be flexible as possible and really just be able to create a service

that people know that they can rely on.

However they're placing their order, they know a few days later it's going to arrive

at their door and they get what they, what they need to support their routine.

Hannah: So what would be the, I know it's probably a bit like a needle in

a haystack type of question, but what would be the expected timeline from

either receiving the online request or the telephone request to the products

then being at the patient's door?

Karla: I guess we would advise generally good practice, so maybe down

to your last seven days of products.

If you're in England, we have um, electronic prescribing service,

so that means that we obviously get the prescription request back

from the GP really quickly, often the same day as we request it

actually, so it's really sped up.

So if you're lucky enough to have that that system and live

in England, so there's no paper prescriptions going back and forth.

We would deliver in three to five days from patient calling into place for order.

Bear in mind the prescription is also requested and received within that time.

When we look at in Wales and Scotland and Northern Ireland, they're still

dealing in paper, so it can take a little longer, but not, not too long.

We've got it down to fine art now, but I guess.

good practice would be to allow seven days from ordering your product to

receipt because obviously Work with gp practices to receive the prescription

and then it's out with dpd for delivery So I think it's really about getting

into that nice ordering routine Cycle going on when, yeah, when you

think, Oh, I'm going to my last seven days, I better give them a call.

Hannah: Absolutely.

One thing I have got to bring up, just because you mentioned earlier, and

when I saw it, it absolutely fascinated me, was the pouch cutting service.

When I went and saw it, the speed these guys can cut up, oh my goodness,

it's quite mesmerising to watch.

Karla: It is, yes.

We run, um, Healthcare Professional, what we call them Experience Days.

So we have nurses, um, coming in to do call listening and

see the service in real life.

And then they go over to our warehouse and see.

Uh, what goes on over there, but key part, like you said, that makes everybody

excited is looking at the stoma bag cutting, the cutting room where we're

lucky enough to have, I think, 12 machines, so we're able to cut a lot of,

most of them on the machine, which makes it more efficient, but we also have a

team of people who cut them by hand as well for any that are off central, a bit

of an unusual shape, but yes, the, the volume and accuracy is mind blowing and

considering that still within that same timeline, so as soon as the prescriptions

receive, the bags are picked by the warehouse teams and then cut to the

specification and dispatched all in the same day, but it is, like you say, it is

quite mesmerizing, the speed that the team are able to do it at and the accuracy.

Hannah: And I love the fact that we do have that openness and

transparency that nurses can do the experience days where they can come

and see around the offices, they can come and see around the warehouse.

And I think that puts such an open and transparency about what we do.

We're not trying to hide anything.

We're not trying to keep any of the under wraps.

I love that.

I think that's so, so important as well.

Karla: Yeah.

So I was hosting one yesterday actually, and um, I think the feedback we get

when nurses are able to come in and.

Like you say, we're really transparent.

We don't know what calls are going to come in or what patients, you

know, we're going to talk to.

So, I always think it's as most transparent as we can, we can possibly be.

But I love having customers in and, um, spending the day with them and really

sharing experiences of how where you can work together to improve what we do

and improve their service and improve our service and really how we can just

help patients, um, all the way through whether they're new to stone care

like you say, or more established and it's sometimes those more established

patients who don't think they need help, actually we can then help them, but

having nurses come in and listening to the cause and how we do support patients.

Yeah, it's really rewarding and actually quite emotive, believe it or not.

I can imagine, yeah.

Sometimes, you know, some of the feedback we get, we all tend to get a little bit

emotional around it in terms of listening to a patient who may be struggling and how

we've been able to help turn that around.

So, yeah, it's lovely to have that.

Hannah: I was lucky enough before I joined Coloplast, I came around

as someone from the NHS, I came around and did the experience day.

And I loved the vibe within the office as well.

You can tell the team really enjoy what they do.

They know that there's meaning behind what they're doing.

I mean, I've been around and I've even worked in call centers

before now where, oh gosh, nobody looks like they want to be there.

You can almost just feel the energy in the room is zero.

That was the one thing that struck me about, I think that probably the

industry as a whole is that there's that positivity that people know

what they're doing, people know that they're making a difference to people.

And I know that's our mission statement as Coloplast, isn't it?

You know, making, make a difference.

Karla: That's what I always say actually to, to nurses when they come in.

And as you know, our mission statement is, you know, making life easier

for people with intimate health care needs, which sounds a little

bit cheesy, but I say, Come in.

That's our mission.

Listen to the calls and then feedback after whether you, you know,

believe that we're delivering that.

And I think everybody who comes in after is blown away, like you said, by

the passion to really deliver on that.

And it's, it becomes quite tangible in terms of they can see or hear,

I guess, over the phone in terms of The difference that they've made to a

patient's life, or whatever team that is, because obviously there's the team

who are talking to customers day in, day out, who call out to place their order.

And, you know, the warmth and conversation and passion that they have there, which

is almost the sort of, like I said, the most day to day part, but I think because

we, we really believe that we're all making a difference, it comes through,

whether it's just taking an order, or with our clinical services team, who,

support patients who may think it's normal to live with leakage or, you know,

sore skin and how we can support those.

So yeah, the passion really does run throughout and listen

to customers, HCPs who come in.

Uh, they really comment on that and, uh, the passion that runs through it.

So it's, yeah, it's very heartwarming.

It sounds a bit cheesy, but, uh, yeah.

Hannah: And the knowledge they've got as well.

It's absolutely incredible that the knowledge that they've got about.

Could be going on behind the scenes.

I mean, it's one thing I know that it was something, especially that

during COVID nurses had to become more adaptable to assess over the phone.

But these guys have almost been doing it for, for years, really.

They, they kind of wrote the book on that almost really, and the way that can.

Pull things out as well.

I, I find absolutely incredible, absolutely incredible the way they're

able to, I remember listening and they were able to pull sort of information out

of people, but without it sounding like the Spanish Inquisition, almost, it was

just really gently pulling out and people opening up and I say that the emotiveness

of it and be able to address problems that people didn't necessarily know they had.

Karla: Yeah, exactly.

And I think that's one thing that does tend to.

I'm surprised that healthcare professions have come in, like you say, they were

thrown in the deep end over COVID, really.

But our teams have been, they've always worked like that.

And, uh, one comment really stuck with me, actually, when we had a nurse

in fairly recently, and she said, It was like listening to myself and this

is a conversation over the phone.

So we take that as a lovely compliment from the, you know, a

really specialist, StomaCare nurse.

And as you know, Hannah, we're always trying to get feedback,

whether it's from nurses or, or patients in terms of how we can.

improve and listen.

So it's really the highest compliment, I think, to get help from a cervical nurse

with making, you know, saying the same thing, which, which is how we want to be.

We will never replace this service, but we want to be able to extend the care

that they offer and work together on it.

Hannah: Coloplast Professional offers a lot of educational material for specialist

nurses and healthcare professionals.

Visit coloplastprofessional.

co. uk to find out more.

It's almost about enhancing the services.

And I say the specialist nurse, it is, it's a fantastic role.

It's a role like no other.

You are never going to replace them.

But to be able to have services such as Charter that can enhance what that

is, it's like an ongoing team really.

I think that's why it's so lovely to be part of, we're all parts

of COG of a massive machine, but we're all involved in that.

Karla: Yeah, exactly.

And that's how we, you know, like to talk about ourselves.

Yes, it's about getting that reliable order and delivery and knowing

that nurses and their patients can trust us and work with us to

deliver a service they can rely on.

But then, as you say, just being able to extend the care

and take a bit of pressure.

of, uh, patients calling for advice and support that we'll

be able to help them, obviously.

You know, if it's a very complex patient and they've got issues, we

will obviously refer back and work with the healthcare professional team.

So let's say, you know, we've got a patient who perhaps needs a bit more

support or clinical intervention that we can, we can give, but

it's a little bit of a safety net.

So we can work with the NHS and, you know, we have that safety net for

patients and then refer back patients who do need that extra support over

and above the advice that we can give.

So yeah, it's about working together.

Hannah: Yeah, absolutely.

And I say that it's great that you can refer back if there's anything more that

you want to query and things like that.

And I know that there's if a patient's potential on especially

I'm thinking of like an ostomate here is on too many products.

Things like that.

I know that we might flag that up if there's Unnecessary, things like

that, or even if there are excess changes on their pouches as well.

Is that an indication that there's something going on?

All these little trigger signals that can be picked up, I think are so important.

Karla: Yeah, so to your point, yeah, so if we see, uh, working with

nurses and their patients who are ordering a lot of supporting products.

Yes, they may be a complex patient and have those complex needs, and of

course that's fine, but they may be that they're struggling and they've

tried to resolve an issue themselves or, you know, just get more and more

sort of temporary fixes, if you like.

So, to be able to flag that with nurses through our transparency and openness to

say, you know, we have these patients.

who are trying to resolve issues and we can support them or

work with you to support them.

So yeah, it's that extra flag, let me say, and a bit of a safety net and um, we have

that transparency and openness like we've been talking about, either by coming in

and listening or by sharing dashboards as we call them and insights into how

we Uh, support patients through the service and sharing those with healthcare

professionals, stomach care nurses to say that, you know, these are the patients

that order through Coloplast Charter after we work together to support them.

So yeah, working very much in partnership and that's our, that's

our ideal really and where we, how we like to work with nurses to make life

easier for them and their patients.

Hannah: Absolutely.

Now I'm going to go a bit into sort of about your background.

So how long have you been with Coloplast for?

Karla: Uh, I've been with Coloplast, it's around eight and a half years now, which

I cannot believe it's gone so quickly.

As you know, every day is a school day and I still feel like I'm learning.

And that's why I love, you know, love what we do and what we do here.

Moving things forward the whole time.

Like we talked about yesterday, I was, uh, we had an experience day with

StomaCare nurses and Just learning from them and ideas of how we can keep

working together and move forward.

So although eight years sounds a long time, uh, yes, still, still

learning and evolving and, um, picking new things up along the way.

Hannah: I say no two days are ever the same, are they?

No.

No two days are ever the same.

I always think that I love that variety.

I love the fact that you're not You don't know what's going to happen on a

day to day basis and all the different people that we work with as well across

all the teams within clinical services.

I mean, even the clinical services team, which I know you are so

close with is such a massive, massive team because you've got.

the guys on the phones, you've got the nurses out in the field, you've

got, you've got such a broad team that you're working with all these

different personalities and no two days are ever going to be the same.

Karla: Exactly, I'm always saying, you know, I can listen to a call or

have a chat with one of the clinical assistants and they talk about their

experience and how they supported a patient, then that might set off, you

know, a new idea and a different traffic.

And okay, how can we, you know, either improve that or how can we roll that

out to make it an even better service?

So all these different experiences and conversations sort of

feed into that, don't they?

To deliver the whole thing, like you say, different ideas and working

with lots of different teams, um, sort of all pulling together really.

Yeah, it's, uh, keeps us on our toes.

Hannah: Absolutely, absolutely.

And had you worked in this sort of industry prior to Coloplast, or was

this a brand new kind of industry?

Karla: Well, I've always worked in marketing, and I've worked

in lots of different industries.

I suppose the closest company I've worked for is Mencap, so supporting

people with a learning disability.

So I worked for Mencap a few years ago now, and I really enjoyed that.

Again, getting that sort of how we can make life easier for them and how we can

support, you know, people with a learning disability and bringing that together.

So that's what really interested me first around, you know, staying in this area

of caring and utilizing those skills.

Ironically, the company I was with immediately before Coloplast

was Interflora, which is a very different, very different

product, but still quite emotive.

Yeah, actually, it's still about making people happy, ultimately.

And people send flowers, you know, for emotional reasons, and uh, there's

always a story behind it again, which is really nice, and to bring

that different kind of thinking in.

Yeah, so to be with Coloplast, you know, over eight years now is lovely.

And to build on that experience and knowledge and keep moving things forward.

Hannah: Yeah, and I think that's, that's the one thing that you really

notice is that things are constantly changing, constantly moving forward.

And the fact that we do like to learn from what's going on, we

don't just stay in one place.

We, I loved what you said that sometimes it will be a conversation

you've had with one of the clinical.

services team.

And that triggers something new that gives you ideas on how things can change.

And I think that's so good that we are given that opportunity to

potentially look at changing, not, this is how it's always been done.

This is how it's going to always be done.

Karla: Yeah, I'm working, I think, closer with the NHS who are always looking at

ways to improve their long term plans.

So it's really as well bringing that in, how can we work with the NHS to support

their plans and how can we, you know, in terms of things like care closer to

home or improving patients self care.

So how can we help the NHS improve self care through?

Making sure they have the right education resources and being able to share that.

And like you say, even our website, which has got loads of advice and

support on, but even being able to order through there also helps improve that.

So it's just those little things of what are the NHS direction the NHS is

moving in and how can we evolve the service to help deliver that as well.

So yeah, there's loads of different, it's so multifaceted, I think.

Lots of different strands pulling into, into what we do.

Hannah: Absolutely.

Thank you so much, Karla.

I feel like I've learned stuff today.

I mean, although I've worked for the NHS, and as a lot of people will

be aware, I was a patient as well.

I did use charter, I must say, when I was an ostomate, I did use charter.

I still feel like I've learned something today.

It goes back to what I was saying, that you never stop learning within this

company and this industry, I don't think.

Things are constantly moving along, constantly changing.

And I've really enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about behind

the scenes, about what's going on.

Thank you so much for joining me.

I know I've been hunting you down for a while, and I do appreciate it.

Karla: It's been a pleasure.

I mean, I could talk about Coloplast Charter all day.

So we're really passionate about what we do here.

So it's just like, you know, as we talk about experiences, getting

people in and listening to that passionate, you know, we can, we can

all talk about it for a long time.

So thank you for bearing with me.

And we got there, we got there in the end.

Hannah: And what I would say to any of the nurses listening.

If you do want to do one of the experience, they do have a word with

your Coloplast territory manager and get them to look into arranging so that

you will get to meet the lovely Karla.

Thank you ever so much for everyone listening and we will see you next time.

Thank you for listening.

To see more of the wide variety of education we offer, please

visit coloplastprofessional.co.uk see you next time.

Narrator: Stoma and Continence Conversations is a Vibrant Sound Media

production for Coloplast Professional.