The Rushey Green Group Practice is located close to Lewisham Hospital in Catford, a busy area of south east London. The surgery has over 9,300 patients on its list, many of whom are transient, plus a substantial proportion of multi-ethnic patients. There are a significant number of residents housed in temporary bedsit and hostel accommodation within the area, which can present social and clinical challenges. The practice also has a large number of African and Caribbean patients with a subsequently high prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and stroke.

A teaching practice, Rushey Green Group Practice currently employs eleven doctors, three nurses, seven reception staff and four members of staff who work in general admin. It is a busy urban practice which also operates extended opening hours from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday in order to accommodate its needy patient base – and to offer the best possible service to local residents.

However, like many GP surgeries across the UK in both urban and rural areas, call congestion at peak times was a common problem at the practice, putting a lot of pressure on receptionists, particularly at peak call times like first thing in the morning when the surgery opened. Senior staff at Rushey Green were aware of the issue with the phones and decided that installing an automated appointment booking system would both complement the extended opening hours, and improve call handling at the surgery.

“We were keen to improve patient access which is an important target for all GP practices,” comments Antonia Makinde, Practice and Finance Manager at Rushey Green. “We hoped that the system would reduce pressure on our receptionists in terms of volume of calls by offering our patients more flexibility in when they could call.” Accordingly, the practice decided to go ahead with the service and first went live with Patient Partner in July 2009.

Change can be difficult, and Antonia and the partners had some concerns about how their patients would respond to the new automated system. “Whilst we still have a few patients who don’t like the system and would prefer to speak to a receptionist, many others really love it,” comments Antonia. “In fact, I would estimate that around one third of our appointments are booked using Patient Partner, which has had a significant and positive impact on reception. Our ability to handle calls at peak times and also throughout the day has really improved. In addition, it means that we can say to patients that they have no excuse for not cancelling their appointments as they can rearrange or cancel them at anytime, not just when we are open.”

The Patient Partner system has helped to enhance aspects of the day to day life of the practice, particularly reducing call congestion. This has had the knock on effect of freeing up time for the practice receptionists so they can carry out other important tasks as the system does the work of making the appointments. “We are still working on making the patients more aware of the system so more can use it,” comments Antonia.

Patient Partner’s best three features are:

1. Patients have the ability to book, cancel or change their appointments.

2. Patients have no excuse for not cancelling their appointment.

3. The good level of support from Voice Connect.

Staff at Rushey Green feel that Patient Partner has achieved what was originally hoped for from the system: patients now find it easier to contact the surgery and call handling and communication has generally improved, although there is still the possibility of a greater uptake of the service by patients who have not yet used it.

Antonia is also full of praise for Voice Connect as a company, and is pleased with how the whole transition process was managed. “We have had fantastic support from Voice Connect throughout: they respond to queries promptly, are responsive to our needs and open to ideas,” she says. “Really, it’s a case of so far, so good with the system.” Antonia would also advise any practice with similar access issues to consider installing Patient Partner. “I personally really like the system, so I’d say, just go for it!”

 

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