The Partners and Practice Manager at Blackwater Medical Centre were looking for ways to reduce call congestion and make it easier for patients to arrange appointments. They felt that an automated telephone system, in the form of Patient Partner, could help with this common problem. After meeting with personnel from Voice Connect and seeing what Patient Partner could do, they decided to go ahead with the service, installing it in March 2009.

Blackwater Medical Centre is located in the town of Maldon in East Essex. The surrounding area is largely rural, including some significant wildlife conservation areas, and also attracts many sailing enthusiasts. The centre itself is one of two surgeries in the town and employs six full time GPs and one part time doctor in addition to a total of 22 staff in a range of clinical and administrative roles. There are over 14,000 residents from the town and surrounding villages on the patient register: the patient demographic is predominantly elderly.

Since this time, Practice Manager Lesley Beale reports that the service has lived up to expectations and is working well at the practice. “We anticipated that Patient Partner would benefit staff by easing pressure on the switchboard, and releasing more time to attend to other essential duties which enhance patient care,” she comments.  “The general reaction from patients has also been very positive. There were some initial issues with dates of birth for twins, triplets and elderly people born before 1909, but these have all been resolved very quickly by Patient Partner. The system has achieved our objective of improved access by making it easier for our patients to get in touch with us and make appointments, and our patients seem very satisfied with the service. It has also improved the speed with which we are able to handle calls as people are now able to bypass reception and make appointments automatically.”

Lesley believes that the service is an important step forward in offering patients improved choice and that, as word of the system continues to spread, that it will play an increased role in further improving call handling efficiency. “We feel that Patient Partner could do more to reduce congestion at peak times, but I think this is purely because the service has not been well advertised by the reception staff as yet – the patients need to know about the system and be encouraged to use it for it to have maximum impact.  Hopefully this is now resolving and the system is becoming better known amongst our patients.”

Lesley is impressed by Patient Partner’s functionality and when asked, can’t think of any way in which the service could be improved although she mentions that the automatic back up function, which backs up their clinical system daily for a short period of time in the middle of the night could be inconvenient for any patient wishing to call at that time.  This is because Patient Partner requires access to their clinical system and cannot obtain it during back up times.  “Obviously our clinical system has to be backed up so there is nothing that can be done about this, but it could be annoying should a patient choose to phone at this particular time.”

This minor, unavoidable technical issue aside, Lesley is very pleased with the system and feels that it does what was promised. “We have found Patient Partner to be an innovative service which gives our patients increased choice.  If used correctly, the system can save patients time and money, particularly at the high call volume times which can be problematic for any surgery.  It also offers our patients the opportunity of getting appointments quickly and easily. It is no longer necessary for patients to have to ring at 8am and so alleviates the congestion and rush in the mornings.”

In fact, Lesley is so impressed with the service, that she would have no hesitation in recommending it to others. “If a surgery like ours was considering switching to Patient Partner I would encourage them to do it as the system does improve patient choice.  In a nutshell, I think it’s great!”

News release 07.06.10

96% of surgeries questioned say automated appointments system improves patient choice

A new survey published this week reports that surgeries using automated phone appointment booking systems to enable patients to manage their own appointments feel that they have significantly increased patient choice. The survey, carried out by IMC Research on behalf of telecoms company Voice Connect, was sent out to over 3,000 GP practices across the UK. As part of the study, practice managers and partners were asked to identify the functions and services  they felt would enhance the appointment process and improve patient access.

The advantage of an automated system is that it enables patients to call their surgery number at any time of the night or day to book appointments. The system enables an individual practice to specify and control when slots are available for patients. They can also cancel and review their times, which helps to reduce a surgery’s DNA rate (did not attend). Of the surgeries using an automated system, 96% agreed that it had improved patient choice at their practice, whilst 85% reported that their patients regularly call out of hours to manage their appointments.

One surgery which uses the automated system known as Patient Partner, is the Kingthorne Group Practice in Doncaster. Practice Manager, Alison Maw explains how the service has helped them. “Since using the system, the number of calls coming in to reception has significantly reduced,” comments Alison. “It also has the added benefit of enabling patients to cancel appointments at the weekend so we are aware first thing on Monday morning of any appointments that have become available.”

Whilst there are several different online booking services in use in the UK, Patient Partner is the only fully automated phone system on the market and has been installed at over 600 surgeries nationwide. It was developed five years ago to tackle the problem of patient access by integrated communications specialist Voice Connect (www.voiceconnect.co.uk). The Leicester based company also supplies a range of telecoms products and services to surgeries, sexual health clinics, police forces and private companies across the UK.

“With the Health Bill announced in the Queen’s speech earlier this month (25th May) focusing on reducing inequality in healthcare and cutting bureaucracy, primary health care facilities will be looking for ways to reduce the administrative burden whilst improving services for patients – a tall order,” comments Stefan Olsberg, Managing Director of Voice Connect. “Despite advances in technology, many people still find it difficult to get through to their doctor and make or cancel an appointment, so improving access is fundamental to improving services.”

Missed appointments cost the NHS an estimated £600 million each year, with around 6.5 million appointments missed from 2007 to 2008.

‘Patient Partner is a marvellous system’ says Kingsthorne Group Practice

First opened in 1919, the Kingsthorne Group Practice in Doncaster now consists of two surgeries: the main surgery in the town centre and a branch surgery in Edenthorpe, which was once a village on the outskirts of Doncaster but which has become subsumed by the growth of town. The practice is a substantial size, with a total of 9,300 patients of mixed demography patients on its list.  There are six partners, one registrar and one F2 currently at the practice, plus four nurses and twelve reception and administrative staff.

Patient access is a problem for many GP surgeries and is also an issue that has been identified by the government. Senior staff at the Kingsthorne Group Practice decided to install an automated appointment booking system in order to reduce the number of calls into the reception team and to offer their patients increased flexibility in making appointments.  “We felt that using Patient Partner would enable us to give our patients a better service, as well as reducing pressure on our reception team,” explains Practice Manager, Alison Maw. “We were keen to offer them the opportunity to book their appointments at any time of day as we felt this would improve patient access. However, we did have some concerns prior to going ahead, mainly about how much our patients would use the system.”

Fortunately, this concern has been allayed by a very positive response from the patients, although Alison admits that they are eager to continue encouraging a greater uptake of the service. “The patients who have used Patient Partner really love it: they find the ease of use great. We do need to continue promoting the service to our patients and are currently using our flu vaccine sessions as an opportunity to do this.”

Alison reports that Patient Partner has really come into its own since they installed SystmOne in June 2009 (a service which integrates with Patient Partner and enables patients to also book appointments online), and that the two systems complement each other well. Using the two services in conjunction has had a very positive impact on the day to day running of the practice. In terms of improving the patient experience, Alison feels that Patient Partner has achieved the original objective of making it easier for them to contact both surgeries. She also believes that using the system has improved patient access and satisfaction.

From a staff perspective, Patient Partner has improved the whole process of call handling, meaning that the receptionists now have more time to attend to other areas of patient care. “Since we have been using Patient Partner, the number of calls coming in to reception has significantly reduced,” comments Alison. “We hope to continue this trend as patients become more aware of the system. It also has the added benefit of enabling patients to cancel appointments at the weekend so we are aware first thing on Monday morning of any appointments that have become available over the weekend.”

1. Ease of use: no special passwords etc. are needed; the patients can just use it
2. The system is available 24 hours a day
3. It frees up reception time

Now that Patient Partner has bedded in so well, Alison has also made some suggestions for ways in which the system could be developed still further to accommodate the varying demands of the practice, which have been taken on board by Voice Connect. “I mentioned that it would be helpful if there was a way of enabling different nurse appointments to be selected related to a time length,” she comments. “So the staff at Voice Connect have been working with us to facilitate this and we hope to have this up and running shortly. In fact, the support from Voice Connect has been very good throughout.”

Alison feels that the difference that Patient Partner has made to the practice is significant, with the potential to become even more widely used. “Patient Partner is a marvellous system that enables patients to have better access to appointments – you just need to ensure that you get the message over to all the patients so they can take advantage of the system,” she says. “If a surgery with similar issues to ours was considering installing Patient Partner, I would advise them to promote the system and go for it.”