Hosted Telephony for GP Surgeries

Ensuring GP surgeries never miss a call

Background

GP surgeries require a friendly, prompt and efficient service. Patients are often calling with health concerns and they will expect a quick response to their call, therefore the telephony solution that is chosen must accommodate those requirements.

The challenge

GP surgeries often deal with a large quantity of calls, particularly during peak times such as Monday mornings. In these cases queueing is a must to ensure all calls are dealt with in a timely and efficient manner. In order to ensure staff resources are allocated correctly, reporting is needed to monitor the number of calls coming through. This will enable the surgery to work as efficiently as possible.

Certain calls within a surgery may require urgent attention. The telephony system selected must ensure that it prioritises calls and that patients are not left waiting for long periods of time, particularly in an emergency situation. Consultations over the phone are a good way for patients to communicate with their nurse or doctor – however call recording will probably need to be considered so that key information can be easily accessed whenever the need arises. Surgeries need to access these features in case an issue occurs, a disaster recovering plan is vital so that it doesn’t impact the care of a patient.

The solution

• Auto attendant
  Greeting the caller, for example with a message saying that their call will be answered and ensures they are not left listening to a ringing tone. It helps cut down the time patients spend waiting in queues, as patient’s enquiries for opening hours and other information can be answered.
• Call queueing
  Allowing a patient’s calls to be queued at network level before they are delivered to a handset at the practice. Comfort messages can be played too, which will give patients reassurance that their call will be answered soon and provide information such as opening hours.
• Call recording
  Used to train and coach new receptionists, nurses and practice managers. Plus, the doctor or nurse has the ability to retrospectively record the call, should they feel the need.
• Sophisticated statistical analysis
  Analysis of inbound and outbound calls can help identify the busiest periods to help plan for staff scheduling.
• Integration with industry-specific CRM’s
  Keeping a record of call history and interactions with patients, as well as screen-pops on inbound calls to create a sense of customer service and care when answering calls.
• PC soft client
  Presence and chat can be used to communicate amongst the team in order to help meet patient confidentiality.
• Receptionist console
  Helping to reduce the time it takes for a call to come in and be transferred to the necessary department or individual. The ability to re-order the queue is important, as some calls may need to be dealt with quicker than others in case of emergency. ‘Presence’ allows the receptionist to check who is available before transferring the call.
• Disaster recovery plan
  Such as failing over to another number (mobile, other practice) ensures that no calls are missed.

GP surgeries can benefit from a reliable and feature-rich telephony system with Horizon.