The Pagoda Surgery in Richmond has introduced a new booking system which enables patients to call the practice at any time to book or cancel appointments. The system, known as Patient Partner, went live at the surgery in September. It has been specially designed to ease the problems that patients can face when trying to contact their GP, offering increased choice in how and when appointments are made.

The surgery, which is situated on Pagoda Avenue, has 7,200 patients on its register. It has already introduced an online system for ordering repeat prescriptions at www.pagodasurgery.co.uk. The new phone service is the latest initiative designed to improve access for patients and enhance the overall patient experience. “Patient Partner will help ease call congestion by giving patients more choice in when they can call,” explains Deborah Taylor, Practice Manager at The Pagoda Surgery. “This frees up phone lines at traditionally busier times of day for important queries and emergencies.”

The automated system works by detecting spaces in the doctors’ diaries, allowing the patient to choose the appointment time which best suits them by pressing a button on their touch tone phone.

“We realise that some patients may prefer to book appointments in the traditional way and they may continue to do so if they wish,” comments Deborah. “However, by providing this round the clock service, we can offer greater flexibility for all our patients, including those who work unsociable hours. We also believe that it will free up valuable time for our receptionists to attend to patient care.”

A survey carried out by the DPP (Developing Patient Partnerships) and the Institute of Healthcare revealed that almost a quarter of a million patients across the country fail to attend appointments each week. “Patient Partner was developed to help with this issue,” explains Stefan Olsberg, Managing Director of Voice Connect. “By making it easier to contact the surgery, we hope that the new system will help to diminish the number of wasted appointments which has to be good news for patients.”

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!”

VC Relay ‘has fantastic power to communicate, reassure and educate’ says Warrington Trading Standards

Warrington is a large industrial town with over 190.000 residents located between Manchester and Liverpool. The town’s borough council has a proactive Trading Standards department whose mission is ‘to promote a fair and safe trading environment’. This remit includes ensuring that traders describe goods accurately, that safety standards are met, that products are priced properly and that all legal requirements are fulfilled. The department also provides an advice service for members of the public who have purchased goods or services that they are unhappy with, offering guidance on what action can be taken.

In 2004, the authority set up iCAN (the Consumer Alert Network) to tackle illegal trading practices taking place in the local area. Central to the success of this venture was the facility to open up lines of communication, enabling large numbers of the public to be contacted quickly. So, in addition to the quarterly ‘iCAN’ newsletter sent out to members, the authority needed the facility to issue regular updates and warnings to targeted groups at short notice.

After some research into the options available, Voice Connect’s VC Relay system was installed that same year. This system, used by police forces and Neighbourhood Watch schemes across the UK, enabled the network to quickly send out large numbers of messages to their database members via text, voicemail or e-mail.

Roger Mapleson, Consumer and Business Protection Manager for Warrington and Halton Trading Standards, explains how use of the system has grown since it was first installed. “We now have over 3,700 residents on the iCAN database using VC Relay to communicate with us and each other,” he says. “We have worked hard to establish relationships within the community, specifically with residents in the more deprived areas of the borough. We have been really pleased with the positive uptake of the scheme.”

So successful has the iCAN initiative with VC Relay been, that the neighbouring Halton Trading Standards Authority has joined with Warrington. “Staff at Halton work closely with us, using VC Relay and the model of the original iCAN scheme,” explains Roger. “They have direct access to our server and are able to operate VC Relay from their own PCs.” The additional revenue that this raised also enabled Warrington TS to upgrade the system. Trafford Metropolitan Borough also signed up to the system last year and are now building and developing their own iCAN using the system.

VC Relay is regularly used to warn people about various scams, doorstep crimes and illegal practices which go on in the town, as well as giving members relevant consumer advice. Two examples of recent incidents in which Warrington TS successfully used VC Relay to notify the public include the apprehension of the owner of a bogus damp proofing company which had been operating in the Cheshire region for over 10 years and the arrest of those responsible for a sham charity collection. In the first example, the use of VC Relay enabled Warrington TS to alert iCAN members to the damp proofing scam as soon as the company started cold calling and leafleting. In the second example, an iCAN member alerted the organisation to their suspicions about a clothing collection, allegedly by a national charity. The collections were monitored by TS staff and found to be bogus, resulting in an arrest.

VC Relay’s best three features according to Warrington Trading Standards:

1. The system is easy to use.

2. It has fantastic power to communicate, reassure and educate.

3. It makes it easy for members to feedback to us.

Based on the success with VC Relay, Warrington Borough Council have recently installed Voice Connect’s Lone Worker system which protects workers on site visits or those who work alone. As the council already had the core component of the VCII hub, adding the Lone Worker system was an economically sound decision. The system is currently being piloted by a section of staff in the authority.

Roger is very positive about the whole experience of using VC Relay and the impact that it has had on the iCAN initiative. “Voice Connect has been an excellent company to work with. They are constantly innovating and coming up with new solutions and have always sorted out any technical glitches quickly. We have every confidence in them as a company and VC Relay as a product and are happy to recommend them to other local authorities. Good communication is the cornerstone of iCAN’s success – VC Relay has played a significant part in enabling us to take our message out into the wider community.”

Bermondsey and Lansdowne Medical Mission say that Patient Partner ‘does just what was promised’

The Bermondsey and Lansdowne Medical Mission is a relatively large GP surgery in Bermondsey, located between the Elephant and Castle and Tower Bridge just south of the Thames. As is usual in many urban areas, the practice’s patient demographic is multicultural with patients from a range of ethic backgrounds and social class. The local residents live in a mix of private and social housing.

The medical centre, which has over 13,000 patients registered on its list, is one of two surgeries which make up the central London practice. There are currently 4 partners plus 12 additional GPs working part time at the surgery, with another 22 staff employed in a range of clinical and administrative roles. The practice runs a range of clinics, including antenatal care and family planning, as well as offering services to advise on health issues such as hypertension, diabetes and nutrition.

Bermondsey and Lansdowne Medical Mission has been using Voice Connect’s automated Patient Partner system since March 2005. The system was originally introduced as a way of reducing the call congestion that was particularly common at peak times, and as a way of offering patients increased flexibility in booking appointments. Whilst the surgery currently has four telephone lines available for call queuing, it can still be difficult to handle a large influx of calls when the surgery opens at 8.30am, a time when people often call to make emergency or routine appointments.

“We felt that, by giving our patients more choice in when they could call to make appointments, we would be able to reduce call congestion at peak times,” comments Sonia McVinnie, Assistant Practice Manager at Bermondsey and Lansdowne. “We did have some concerns prior to installation about how we would collect telephone numbers so that our patients could have access to the system and also how we would advertise the system.  However, the support from the Voice Connect helpdesk has always been good – they are on hand whenever they are needed.”

Whilst the surgery currently has four telephone lines available for call queuing, it can still be difficult to handle a large influx of calls when the surgery opens at 8.30am, a time when people often call to make emergency or routine appointments. So a system like Patient Partner, which allows people to make appointments if they feel unwell in the night rather than when they get up, or late in the evening rather than before leaving for work in the morning, means that call traffic at these times is reduced.

Assistant Practice Manager Sonia reports that Patient Partner has made a significant contribution to the day to day running of the practice by improving the whole call handling process, through reducing call congestion and freeing up receptionists’ time so they are able to deal with other administrative task to facilitate the smooth running of the practice. “Because patients are able to book or cancel their appointments at any time, they now find it easier to make an appointment and access has improved, which was one of our main aims in introducing the system.”

Patient Partner’s top three features are:

1. Reduces time and workload for reception staff.
2. The system is available 24 hours a day.
3. The system has improved patient access.

Sonia also reports that the patients are happy with the system, and that removing the frustration of queuing and the engaged tone combined with improved access has increased patient satisfaction. “We didn’t realise quite how many patients were using the system until we audited the figures – and we were pleasantly surprised at how many appointments have been made in the past 12 months using the Patient Partner service,” explains Sonia.  However, the practice is keen to continue proactively promoting the service and encouraging further patient uptake with support from Voice Connect.

After using the system for several years, the Bermondsey and Lansdowne Medical Mission is happy to recommend Patient Partner to other practices who want to improve patient access to their services, but advises that the system works best when adjusted to the individual surgery’s needs. “We are happy with the Patient Partner system and so are our patients – it does just what was promised.  We are pleased to be able to use the service to give our patients an increased choice and enhance their experience at our centre.”

Trinity Medical Centre saves money using Patient Partner

Trinity Medical Centre is a small, semi rural practice located in the Staffordshire village of Blythe Bridge, a few miles south east of Stoke on Trent and close to the major traffic routes of the A50 and M6. The centre employs two GPs, two practice nurses and eight additional staff who work in a range of clinical and administrative roles. There are 4,200 patients registered at the surgery, drawn from a predominantly white middle class demographic.

Like many GP practices across the UK, Trinity Medical Centre experienced a high volume of phone call traffic at certain times of the day, particularly when the surgery first opened in the morning. In an effort to reduce call congestion and improve overall access for patients, senior management at the centre decided to implement an automated appointments service, with Patient Partner first going live at the practice in September 2009.

Practice Manager Sue Bryan explains the reasons behind opting for the Patient Partner system. “We wanted to install an automated service because our telephones were always extremely busy first thing in the morning, every day of the week.  We thought that if our patients were able to book and cancel their own appointments whenever it suited them, it would remove some of pressure from the early morning staff. We also hoped it would make the telephones less busy, which would be less frustrating for patients.

“Having had a full demonstration from the sales team which clearly explained everything, we felt confident about going ahead,” comments Sue. Fortunately this confidence was not misplaced and the system has lived up to expectations. “Whilst we have had a few minor teething problems as we adapted the system for our particular requirements, it has enabled us to greatly improve our service. Not only that, but our staff now feel less pressured and are able to cope much better in the mornings.”

Most importantly, the reaction from patients has been very positive, with most expressing the opinion that Patient Partner is a good idea. “Patients find the system easy to use and have adapted well to it,” says Sue “They are now able to make their own appointments without going via reception, saving a lot of time and frustration.”

Patient Partner’s top three features:

1. It makes the telephones less busy.

2. Patients can pre book their appointments.

3. It handles out of hours calls and directs patients to the out of hours service.

Patient Partner has helped to improve several key areas of surgery life, including the main aim of reducing call congestion, particularly at the traditionally busy times. It has also achieved the objective of making life easier for the receptionists by reducing the number of calls that they need to answer, thereby releasing time to concentrate on other tasks. “Our patients also say that they find it easier to contact the surgery since the system has been installed,” comments Sue. “In fact, using Patient Partner has really enhanced our overall call handling capabilities.”

Sue has nothing but praise for the system and would be happy to recommend it to any other surgery looking to resolve their call handling issues. “I think the system is very good and can’t think of anything else which needs to be done to improve it. Whenever we have had any issues, they have been resolved quickly by the support team: they have offered us a good level of support and we have always been able to speak to someone when we have needed to.  Generally, Patient Partner has made the reception a much calmer place and receptionists have time to do other things.  Our patients are able to book appointments in advance and out of hours 24/7 so this frees up the telephones – and it has also saved us money by not having to install another telephone line. I would advise any surgery considering installing the system to go for it. Not only am I happy to recommend it to others- I have already done so!”

Warrington is a large industrial town with over 190.000 residents located between Manchester and Liverpool. The town’s borough council has a proactive Trading Standards department whose mission is ‘to promote a fair and safe trading environment’. This remit includes ensuring that traders describe goods accurately, that safety standards are met, that products are priced properly and that all legal requirements are fulfilled. The department also provides an advice service for members of the public who have purchased goods or services that they are unhappy with, offering guidance on what action can be taken.

In 2004, the authority set up iCAN (the Consumer Alert Network) to tackle illegal trading practices taking place in the local area.  Central to the success of this venture was the facility to open up lines of communication, enabling large numbers of the public to be contacted quickly. So, in addition to the quarterly ‘iCAN’ newsletter sent out to members, the authority needed the facility to issue regular updates and warnings to targeted groups at short notice.

After some research into the options available, Voice Connect’s VC Relay system was installed that same year. This system, used by police forces and Neighbourhood Watch schemes across the UK, enabled the network to quickly send out large numbers of messages to their database members via text, voicemail or e-mail.

Roger Mapleson, Consumer and Business Protection Manager for Warrington and Halton Trading Standards, explains how use of the system has grown since it was first installed. “We now have over 3,700 residents on the iCAN database using VC Relay to communicate with us and each other,” he says. “We have worked hard to establish relationships within the community, specifically with residents in the more deprived areas of the borough. We have been really pleased with the positive uptake of the scheme.”

So successful has the iCAN initiative with VC Relay been, that the neighbouring Halton Trading Standards Authority has joined with Warrington. “Staff at Halton work closely with us, using VC Relay and the model of the original iCAN scheme,” explains Roger. “They have direct access to our server and are able to operate VC Relay from their own PCs.” The additional revenue that this raised also enabled Warrington TS to upgrade the system. Trafford Metropolitan Borough also signed up to the system last year and are now building and developing their own iCAN using the system.

VC Relay is regularly used to warn people about various scams, doorstep crimes and illegal practices which go on in the town, as well as giving members relevant consumer advice. Two examples of recent incidents in which Warrington TS successfully used VC Relay to notify the public include the apprehension of the owner of a bogus damp proofing company which had been operating in the Cheshire region for over 10 years and the arrest of those responsible for a sham charity collection. In the first example, the use of VC Relay enabled Warrington TS to alert iCAN members to the damp proofing scam as soon as the company started cold calling and leafleting. In the second example, an iCAN member alerted the organisation to their suspicions about a clothing collection, allegedly by a national charity. The collections were monitored by TS staff and found to be bogus, resulting in an arrest.

VC Relay’s best three features according to Warrington Trading Standards:

1. The system is easy to use.
2. It has fantastic power to communicate, reassure and educate.
3. It makes it easy for members to feedback to us.

Based on the success with VC Relay, Warrington Borough Council have recently installed Voice Connect’s Lone Worker system which protects workers on site visits or those who work alone. As the council already had the core component of the VCII hub, adding the Lone Worker system was an economically sound decision. The system is currently being piloted by a section of staff in the authority.

Roger is very positive about the whole experience of using VC Relay and the impact that it has had on the iCAN initiative. “Voice Connect has been an excellent company to work with. They are constantly innovating and coming up with new solutions and have always sorted out any technical glitches quickly. We have every confidence in them as a company and VC Relay as a product and are happy to recommend them to other local authorities. Good communication is the cornerstone of iCAN’s success – VC Relay has played a significant part in enabling us to take our message out into the wider community.”

Patient Partner gives White Medical Group ‘the best of both worlds’

White Medical Group is located just outside the border of Newcastle upon Tyne and consists of three sites: the main surgery is located in the village of Ponteland, with branch sites at Wylam and Stamfordham. The practice employs 6 doctors, 2 nurses and 19 admin staff for a patient list of just under 7,000 residents in total. With the three surgeries covering a large geographical area which includes both urban and rural communities, the patient demographic is varied.

The demands made on a modern GP practice are steadily increasing, and whilst the number of reception staff at White Medical Group had remained constant for some years, their workload was continually rising. The partners and practice manager decided that installing an automated phone appointment booking system could be one way of reducing this pressure, and so went live with their Patient Partner system in October 2009.

Although Patient Partner is installed at over 600 surgeries nationwide (with that number steadily rising), there were no surgeries in the area using Patient Partner at that time. This meant that the practice manager James Young was unable to see the system working in situ prior to installation.

“Although Voice Connect’s demonstration was very good, we weren’t certain that the reality would live up to it,” James explains. “We couldn’t go and see the system in action in a real surgery which made it hard to uncover any flaws, so it felt like a bit of a leap in the dark to have the system installed, particularly in relation to the integration with our clinical and phone systems.”

However, these concerns proved to be unfounded, and whilst it took a little adjustment to integrate the system with EMIS during installation, once installed everything has run efficiently. “Voice Connect ironed out the inevitable teething issues very quickly,” comments James. “Since going live we haven’t had any problems at all.  Everything has worked reliably – in fact, I have been very impressed with Voice Connect’s level of support.”

James also reports that the system has been well received by the majority of patients at the surgery and that uptake has steadily increased as patients become more familiar with Patient Partner. “Generally elderly patients can take a while to get used to the technology, but this has become easier with time,” he explains. “There was some initial concern that we would force people to use the service, but this was never going to be the case. The system is great and we find that once a patient has used it they never go back to the old system of ringing a receptionist. Some patients will always prefer speaking to a real person, so we have the best of both worlds by having both options. We plan to extend our marketing efforts with help from Voice Connect in order to continue increasing patient usage still further.”

Patient Partner’s best three features are:

1. The integration between the phone system and the clinical system.
2. The stability of the IT platform.
3. The ability to book appointments at any time which has also reduced receptionist workload.

James reports that Patient Partner has had a positive impact on call handling and general communication at all the surgeries, reducing call congestion, particularly at peak call times. The system has freed up time for receptionists, whilst making it easier for patients to contact the surgery. “The system has enabled us to monitor how we handle calls and make further improvements by providing useful statistics which allow phone usage to be closely monitored,” he adds.

“Our experience of Patient Partner has generally been very positive and if a surgery similar to ours was considering installing the system, I‘d advise them to go for it as it’s definitely worthwhile if you want to take some of the existing workload pressure off reception staff. Prior to installation, it’s worth thinking about how you market the service and how you maximise patient usage. Whilst Patient Partner isn’t cheap, it does provide good value for money. In fact, overall it’s an excellent system that does exactly what it says on the tin.”

Voice Connect, who has been trading since 1991 is celebrating 20 years of trading this month (February).  The company, who supply computer telephony to private and public companies across the UK, now employ 35 staff in three units at their head office in Leicestershire.

Managing Director Stefan Olsberg attributes the company’s success in such a fast moving market to the fact that their products and services are continually updated to keep abreast of advances in technology.  “Since we started out fax machines have long since been replaced in most companies by text messaging and email,” comments Mr Olsberg. “In this industry more than most, you have to adapt to the constant change that surrounds us. We know we have to update our products if we are to remain successful in business and so we regularly introduce new services including text messaging, email, mobile phone apps and Smartmail.”

Voice Connect are specialists in the health sector and work with NHS trusts and GP surgeries all over the country. They also work with other areas of the public sector including local government, police and higher education, numbering the Metropolitan Police and the Houses of Parliament amongst their customer portfolio.

The company’s most popular product is their automated telephone appointment booking system known as Patient Partner, which is installed at approximately 1 in 10 GPs’ practices in the UK. The system enables patients to book, check or cancel appointments at any time of the day or night, even when the practice is closed. The company also developed VC Relay which is widely used by the police, local authorities and organisations such as Neighbourhood Watch to communicate with large numbers of the public. Looking to the future, the technical division continue to develop new products and are about to launch a new service for dentists in the spring.

Voice Connect was originally founded by Mr Olsberg, Financial Director Geoff White and David Harrison who heads up the development and technical division. “When we set up Voice Connect, we had a vision for designing computer telephony solutions to help organisations become more efficient and save money,” comments David. “Back then what seemed futuristic now seems commonplace and I am proud that some of the products we devised are now widely used and integral to an organisation’s communications strategy.”

The three original directors Stefan Olsberg, Geoff White and David Harrison have been joined as directors by Sales Director Paul Trayler who was appointed to the board in 2000 in recognition of his value to the company.

Dapdune House Surgery finds that Patient Partner ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’

Dapdune House Surgery www.dapdune.co.uk is located in central Guildford near to the University of Surrey campus. The surrounding area is urban with an increasingly mixed demographic and comes under the control of Surrey PCT. With a current patient base of over 11,500, the practice is large and busy. At present, there are 7 GPs and 3 GP registrars, plus an additional team of 15 support/ admin staff and 15 ancillary staff which include health visitors, practice and district nurses and community midwives.

Like many GP practices across the UK, Dapdune House Surgery experiences a surge of telephone calls at certain times of the day, with the peak time on Monday morning. With so many patients phoning to make appointments at specific times, Practice Manager Duncan Mann and the practice partners felt that one way of relieving call congestion would be to introduce an automated appointment booking facility. Having looked at the Patient Partner system, the first on the market to offer this service, the Dapdune management team decided that the system was what they needed and went ahead with installation in February 2007

“We decided to implement the Patient Partner system because we wanted to improve access for our patients and make it easier for them to get in touch with us,” comments Duncan Mann. “However, our primary motivation was to relieve the burden on our busy reception staff, especially at peak call times. We didn’t enter into it lightly: to ensure that the system was right for us, we visited a neighbouring practice to check out how it stacked up in real life so we could see it working in situ.”

Since installing the system, the surgery reports that it has helped with many of their communication issues. “Patient Partner is working well for us, although we probably haven’t been as proactive in promoting the service as we should. We do encourage patients who visit our website to use the service, particularly at busy times such as first thing on Monday morning. There’s no question that it has helped us to reduce call congestion at peak times and has eased the burden on our receptionists whilst our patients now find it easier to contact the surgery. We would like to see a greater take up of the service out of hours, but to achieve this we really need to take the initiative and advertise the facility more extensively as it is such a useful option for both the practice and our patients.”

Given how Patient Partner has eased communication between the practice and its patients, Duncan is surprised that the patient reaction hasn’t been more openly enthusiastic. “We haven’t had a great deal of patient reaction – it has been strangely muted,” he explains. “This may be a positive sign as I presume people would make their feelings known if they didn’t like the system. Patients have become used to what technology can do and tend to expect facilities such as online booking so that may also be a factor.  I do receive occasional comments that it could be more patient friendly, but in my experience it is hard to see how, given the sophistication of the software needed to run the system.”

Patient Partner’s top three features

1. It is a stable and reliable system.
2. The level of support from Voice Connect.
3. The ease with which the system can be configured.

Duncan is also pleased with the support from Voice Connect. “On the whole, we have been well supported by the Voice Connect team throughout,” he says. “The system has been efficient and relatively trouble free. The reports that accompany the system are useful and provide us with valuable feedback to help us make the most of it – although it would be good to have proactive generation of reports delivered via e-mail.”

Finally, Duncan has this advice for other practices who may be considering implementing Patient Partner. “To find out if the system is really for you, talk to other existing users to ensure that you understand the benefits and limitations of the system. You also need to spend some time thinking through how you will introduce it to patients to ensure that you make the most of its capabilities. For us, Patient Partner has relieved the pressure on our phone lines and has improved communication – in fact it does exactly what it says on the tin.”

Smart Clinic: ‘all walk-in clinics should have this installed’ says Streatham Hill Health Centre

Lambeth PCT Reproductive and Sexual Health Service delivers a range of free and confidential sexual health services to women and men, including testing and treatment for sexual infections as well as contraception and pregnancy advice. The service is administered across four walk-in clinic sites, with its headquarters at Streatham Hill Health Centre. The centre, which opened in November 2008, is part of a £600,000 refurbishment project by NHS Lambeth with support from the Guys & St Thomas’ Charity Modernisation Initiative.

At present the clinics employ a total of 19 doctors and staff in a range of roles and across the four sites. The Lambeth area has a relatively high rate of teenage pregnancy and STIs and so the service has an undertaking to support young people. The clinics work with a mixed demographic of residents from across the region, including Polish, black Caribbean, black African, white British and Portuguese.

The clinic managers felt that installing an automated registration and triage system such as Smart Clinic would be a positive move, improving patient access and promoting self management amongst its users. However, given the sensitive nature of clients’ medical issues, they also had some concerns about how secure people would feel using the service and whether the uptake would justify its installation.

“We weren’t sure how confident our clientele would feel using a computerised system to register their attendance without the traditional receptionist interaction,” explains Service Co-ordinator Elizabeth Wilson. “However, we decided that the benefits made it worthwhile and installed Smart Clinic (known in Lambeth as Q-Smart) in June 2009. The ‘go live’ day went extremely well, and since that time I’m pleased to report that the majority of our clients have taken to the new registration process easily. There has been some need for client interaction in a few cases in which users have language barriers or difficulties spelling their address or date of birth, but these have been quickly dealt with.”

Elizabeth is delighted with the way that the system is working at the service’s four sites and feel that it has achieved all that they had hoped for and more. “Smart Clinic has more than lived up to our expectations. We have used it successfully for auditing purposes and it has also helped us to fulfil the Department of Health drive to increase access for young people. In fact, the Smart Clinic initiative has been particularly well received by our young clients. In addition, we have found it simple to make ongoing changes according to client need/feedback to ensure that the system fully meets our requirements.”

Installing the system has enhanced many areas of the clinic’s work. It has reduced the amount of time that receptionists need to spend with clients, thereby freeing up their time to attend to other important tasks within the clinic. It has also improved the information for patients as they are able to see where they are in the queue and how long they are likely to have to wait. “Staff are now able to assess and manage waiting time more effectively,” adds Elizabeth. “Smart Clinic gives us accurate data on waiting times; it enables clinical staff to observe the volume of clients waiting and to assess which clients can be seen due to staffing skill mix. It also enables us to fast track young people into the clinic where appropriate and supports and promotes self management amongst our clients.”

Smart Clinic’s three best features are:

1. Promotes self management, a key area for the department.
2. Improves patient flow.
3. Improves patient experience.

Elizabeth also has high praise for Voice Connect and its staff. “The team at Voice Connect has been superb! The level of skill is impressive and the turnaround time on any requests we make is excellent. We are always looking at ways to improve patient flow and Smart Clinic is instrumental in facilitating this process.  We regularly look at ways to improve the system and this is fed back to the Voice Connect team who act on change very quickly.”

If a clinic was in a similar position and considering implementing Smart Clinic, Elizabeth would have no hesitation in recommending it to them. “It is an excellent system which helps to alleviate congestion, improve staff morale, improve patient access and promotes self management. In my opinion, all walk-in clinics should opt to have this system installed.”