Cestria Healthcare Centre are dedicated to their patients continued good health and approach their patients care with professionalism, discretion, and friendliness. They pride themselves on the warm welcome from everyone involved at the practice.
Not only do Cestria Healthcare Centre offer everything you would expect of a normal GP surgery, but they also offer a range of other specialist clinics. In addition to this, Cestria Healthcare Centre are also rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.
“We are delighted to have been rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission. Everybody has a right to good care and it’s important to recognise where care is good and to celebrate the services that are getting it right.
Feedback from our patients about the care they receive was better than local and national averages. Patients reported that they were treated with compassion, dignity, and respect which is at the heart of our ethos at Cestria Healthcare Centre. We strive always to provide the best possible care for our patients.”Denise Minnis Practice Manager, Cestria Health Centre
The Challenge
Cestria were operating a legacy analogue telephone system with an outdated cabling infrastructure. The telephone system often lacked the functionality that comes with cloud-based telephone systems. This was more apparent when call volumes peaked during busy times impacting on the patient’s experience.
Like many healthcare teams across the UK, Cestria were required to react fast, implementing whole new ways of operating to support the triage model. This not only had a huge impact on call costs for the practice but also on availability of lines to support both the increase of inbound calls but also the new demand for outbound lines to support the triage service.
As the requirement for remote working became more prevalent as the pandemic hit, a flexible and future-proof system became a crucial requirement. The current system lacked modern features, so there was no visibility of the quantity of inbound or outbound calls.
“We were looking for more flexibility, a system that would allow us to easily keep our patients informed with updated messages. Providing reassurance during what was a difficult time for many patients, providing the relevant information along with call queuing.
We lacked the key data needed to measure and assess call handling performance to improve the patient experience”
Denise Minnis Practice Manager, Cestria Health Centre
The Solution
Smart IT’s telecoms sales manager Darryl met with the practice manager to fully understand the practice’s requirements and their future ambitions. From this meeting, Darryl recommended moving to a cloud-based telephony solution. In order to implement a cloud solution, the cabling infrastructure required upgrading to a new Cat 5 network to support the IP handsets on a cloud system.
“Smart IT have vast experience working with many GP Surgeries across the region and recognise the evolving challenges they face. We appreciate that doctors’ surgeries are under pressure to deliver a professional, reliable, and secure service to their patients making the choice of phone system they choose very important. Smart IT’s cloud solution, not only offers lower call charges but features that our tailor to meet the medical professions unique needs.”
Darryl Robinson, Sales Manager, Smart IT
Our cloud telephone solution includes a mobile app which enables all of the staff at Cestria to work remotely just as if they were in the surgery. It turns their mobile phone or laptop into their office phone, meaning calls can be received, made and transferred using their office extension/number, presenting to patients as if they were working within the surgery.
The Results
Cestria are now experiencing the benefits of a Smart IT’s cloud telephone solution, each member of staff has a individual telephone line available so when completing triage it is seamless, with an outbound line always available.
“An immediate benefit was the number of lines. 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. When we are experiencing spikes in demand, we have a more available and flexible work force to support this.”
Denise Minnis Practice Manager, Cestria Health Centre
Smart IT included all local, national and mobile calls which rapidly reduced costs whilst also gaining a new system with extra functionality. The system is now future proofed with business continuity if remote working is required. Each member of the Cestria team now have the technology to work from anywhere with an internet connection.
This was achieved very simply, adopting a plug and play approach with handsets or the use of the mobile app. Both Cestria and their sister practice Coxhoe Medical operate on the same cloud telephone systems for full futureproofing. A positive patient experience was paramount to any technology changes that were put in place, which is why the real time portal was so important. The practice manager can upload messages that are relevant to that day, control and report on call queues and add in additional call resource instantly.
The cloud telephone solution provides full call reporting on inbound and outbound calls and supports resource planning and assessing call handling performance.
“Patient feedback tells us they are very happy with the changes, as they get a response, even if it is just to tell them they are held in a call queue.
We can change the messaging too, depending on which campaign we are running, which previously wasn’t the case. Staff also find the system intuitive and easy to use.”
Denise Minnis, Practice Manager, Cestria Health Centre
For information how Smart IT can help with your Cloud Telephone Solutions Newcastle, Cloud Telephone Solutions Gateshead, Cloud Telephone Solutions Sunderland, Cloud Telephone Solutions Durham and Cloud Telephone Solutions Darlington contact us today.
