Jockey Road find their experience of Patient Partner ‘a positive one’

Jockey Road Medical Centre is situated near to Sutton Coldfield in a residential area comprised of a mainly middle class populace with small pockets of deprivation. Part of the Midlands Medical Partnership (www.mmpmedical.com), which administers services for around 50,000 patients across 8 surgeries in the Birmingham area, Jockey Road currently has 8,260 residents on its patient list. The centre staff include 5 doctors, 3 nurses and 13 staff in a range of administrative, reception and support roles.

Call congestion, particularly at the peak times when a surgery first opens, is an issue for many GP practices of all sizes and locations. The staff at Jockey Road were aware of this problem at their own surgery and were keen to find ways of improving patient communication with the practice, as well as enhancing patient access and easing the pressure on their busy reception desk. They decided that an automated phone appointment booking system could be the answer, and installed Patient Partner in 2009. The practice was also the first surgery in the UK to use Patient Partner with the Vision Enterprise System through the central server.

However, change isn’t always well received by patients, so the staff at Jockey Road had some apprehension prior to installing the system. “We were a little concerned about how our patients would respond to using an automated system for the first time,” comments Sonia Cox, Practice Manager at Jockey Road Medical Centre. “Whilst it’s true that initially some patients expressed a preference for speaking to a receptionist, the system actually bedded in quickly and within a couple of months we received lots of positive feedback from patients of all ages who found the system easier to use than expected.”

Sonia and the reception staff are pleased with the way that the Patient Partner system is working at the surgery and feel that it has helped to improve communication for both staff and patients. “Patient Partner has more than lived up to our expectations and has helped us to improve patient access as we had hoped,” she comments. “The system has helped to reduce call congestion at peak times and has also enabled us to handle a high volume of calls more efficiently. This has the added bonus of making it easier for patients with urgent problems to get through to reception quickly.”

Patient Partner’s top three features

1. The system is easy to use for old and young alike.

2. Patients can bypass the appointment section if they need to speak to a person.

3. You really notice the difference when you don’t have it!

“The system has become such an integral part of the surgery and our day to day routine that we don’t really think about it,” adds Sonia. “However, we really appreciated its value and noticed the difference that it makes to the life of the practice when we had some down time during a recent data merge.”

Sonia also rates the service from Voice Connect very highly. “The support from Voice Connect as a company has been extremely good throughout the whole process. We have always found the staff extremely helpful and any actions requested have been dealt with quickly. All in all we are very happy with the system and how it works within our practice.”

Furthermore, Sonia would be happy to recommend Patient Partner to other surgeries looking to improve their patient access and communication. She would also urge surgery staff not to be deterred by the possibility of an initial negative reaction from patients to the prospect of an automated system.  “People rarely embrace change and although there were some concerns raised by patients at first, the system was used regularly very quickly. In addition, the feedback from the patients was very positive from the outset, reporting that they found the system easy to use. Certainly, our own experience of using Patient Partner has been a very positive one.”

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