Based in Stockton on Tees, Woodlands Family Medical Centre has been at the heart of the community since being founded back in 1922. The Surgery are very proud of this heritage. The practice still maintains its traditional values, they are passionate about their patients care.
“We only employ staff who are also passionate about our patients care and everyone at Woodlands aims to go the extra mile. We always want to do what is best for our patients, we feel that communication is key, and we want to listen to what our patients have to say.”
Sharon Leonard, Practice Manager, Woodlands Family Medical Centre
To enable the surgery to know what is important to our patients, we created Woodlands Patient Participation Group. This is made up of patient volunteers, who meet at the surgery on a regular basis, their role as a group is to offer feedback from the patients’ perspective”
The Challenge
Many GP practices are currently under enormous pressures with patient numbers increasing year on year, surgeries require more than a simple dial tone to communicate effectively with their patients.
Woodlands were operating with an analogue telephone system with a key objective to improve their patients call experience. They recognised the value of being able to place calls in a queue, provide call tailored messaging and offer patients an alternative to being placed on hold or getting the dreaded engaged tone. As well as keeping patients informed throughout the call the practice was keen to also improve the connectivity and call quality too.
Their existing analogue system was no longer fit for purpose and lacked the modern features the surgery desired.
“It’s important that we keep the surgery up to date with technical developments too. The majority of appointments are booked over the telephone, it’s my role to make it as easy as possible for patients to contact the surgery”
Sharon Leonard, Practice Manager, Woodlands Family Medical Centre
The analogue system offered no flexibility for remote working, something that over recent times has become crucial to staying fully operational. To work remotely, staff were relying on using mobile phones, which isn’t practical when patients need to contact the surgery.
The Solution
From the initial consultation it was apparent that the surgery and its patients would benefit from a cloud telephony solution. It would overcome the challenges that Woodlands Family Medical Centre faced but also give them new features which would enhance effectiveness within the surgery.
The new system would offer the practice more up to date features, reliability, and incorporate a call recording system helping as a reference for queries and complaints whilst complying with the surgeries legal obligation to record calls.
Whilst making savings on call charges and improve patient access. The surgeries call costs had increased significantly due to the increased triage demand.
A cloud system supports remote working, doctors and receptionists can work from home just as if they were in the surgery, with an app that turns their mobile or laptop into their office phone. Calls can be received, made, and transferred using their office extension / number, without eating into their mobile plan minutes. We also recommended installing a leased line to ensure the practice had a sustainable connection for their voice traffic.
“With our dedicated internet line, we have had a consistent and reliable service and the call quality we have experienced has been great.”
Sharon Leonard, Practice Manager, Woodlands Family Medical Centre
The Results
Woodlands Family Medical Centre are now operating with a Cloud telephone system and experienced the benefits immediately. A key benefit has been the increased telephone line capacity, which has been particularly useful for spikes in call volumes and future scalability. It has allowed the surgery to carry out the triage service with greater flexibility.
“We can all dial out at any time and patients can still ring in. This was so important for the practice to successfully carry out triage.”
Sharon Leonard, Practice Manager, Woodlands Family Medical Centre
The team at Woodlands are now able to work remotely when required, this offers them greater flexibility along with the reassurance of business continuity.
“During the pandemic many of our staff needed flexible, secure, remote working. Our new telephone system allows for completely seamless remote working, with calls able to be directed to a GP’s mobile, while displaying their standard practice number to patients on outbound call”
Talk Works Sharon Leonard, Practice Manager, Woodlands Family Medical Centre
Woodlands have found the cloud telephone system easy to use, staff have been transferring and making calls with ease from day one.The surgery can set up call queuing and support for callers waiting to be answered. They can also provide a professional messaging service that provides incoming callers with essential information automatically, helping to relieve the pressure on the reception staff.
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