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A
small town some 20 miles west of Oxford. Located only 2 miles south
of the A40 in a semi rural environment, the
town is popular with professionals and provides
easy access to Oxford and Cheltenham. With
RAF Brize Norton, one of the main RAF transport
bases in the country, positioned on the edge of the town, the population
of Carterton can
be transitory. Unsurprisingly, there is also
a high proportion of retired RAF personnel living in the vicinity.
The town is prosperous and offers many amenities, whilst new housing ensures
the town’s continued expansion.
Broadshires Health Centre opened in 2001 on a purpose
built complex which also houses an NHS dentist and pharmacy, encompassing
all the main aspects of primary health care.
The health centre is open between the hours of 8am
and 6.30pm Monday to Friday and runs a range of clinics, including
well baby, antenatal, family planning, diabetes and asthma.
There is also an osteopathy clinic available on site.
The practice has a large number of medical staff and attached staff,
numbering 30 in total. This includes 5 doctors, 3 practice nurses,
1 phlebotomist and 7 reception staff.
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Whilst the health centre is a modern and well equipped practice, since opening
it has also experienced some of the communication problems that numerous
GPs’ surgeries across the country encounter. Many surgeries describe
the difficulties that patients often have when trying to contact their
doctor - and with a patient base numbering approximately 8.000 the
situation was no different at Broadshires.
“The early mornings,
particularly Monday, are traditionally the busiest times
for a surgery switchboard. With so many patients registered at our
practice, the volume of call
traffic can be very heavy, particularly at
these peak times of day,” explains Les Waller, Practice and Business
Manager at Broadshires.
Prior to the installation of Patient Partner,
patients could find it difficult to contact a receptionist for an appointment,
and often encountered
the engaged tone.
The
surgery decided to be proactive and look at ways in which call congestion
could be eased. After meeting with Lucy Morris of Voice Connect, Les
and the Partners decided to go ahead with the installation of the Patient
Partner system, which was up and running by the summer of 2005. “We
chose the Voice Connect system because of its ability to integrate with
Front Desk and EMIS,” explains Les, “we felt confident that the system
could help resolve our communication issues.”
Since its installation, Les feels that the
system has lived up to expectations. “We found that it needed a
little tweaking and refinement initially to get the system working
exactly as we wanted, but it does do exactly what was promised -
and I think it could be still further improved by adding the facility
to record and activate our own message prompts.” Les has also found
the support from Voice Connect personnel to be consistently good
- from installation through to support and training.
Most importantly,
the system has helped to resolve the patients’ communication issues.
“Patient Partner has eased the congestion on our phone lines. It
also gives our patients the choice and flexibility to make or change
appointments whenever they wish, at a time which is convenient to
them – even in the middle of the night as our reports have shown.”
So how have the patients reacted to the new service? After all, change is often
poorly received at first. “Initially the response was a bit mixed especially
from the more elderly patients,” explains Les. “However, now that the
system has bedded in and patients have become more familiar with how
it works, the reaction has been good.”
Les feels that
Patient Partner has been a worthwhile investment for the health centre and would suggest that any practice
with similar issues should consider giving it a try. “The greatest
advantage of Patient Partner is the convenience and flexibility that
it offers our patients. We are very happy with the way that the system
is working for us here at Broadshires.”
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