Brownhill Surgery

Queueing and Messaging

August 2022

Brownhill Surgery is a Blackburn based GP practice providing healthcare services to over 5,300 patients, including a Carers Service which offers support, information and advice to all unpaid carers within Blackburn. The practice sits within the Blackburn With Darwen CCG.

August 2022

The Challenge

Brownhill Surgery were using a legacy phone system which wasn't able to cope with demand, resulting in difficulty for patients trying to call the practice. Carla Lord, Practice Manager at Brownhill Surgery, was looking for a new phone system "to help with patients queuing in the system, and with all facilities being on the same line."

The practice were also keen that the new phone system integrate with their EMIS clinical system.

The Solution

Deployed across over 1500 UK practices, Surgery Connect is a future proof, secure GP telephony solution which improves the patient experience, while driving efficient practice management and scalable communications across General Practice, PCNs and CCGs. Surgery Connect provides fully integrated remote working for GPs and staff via mobiles and softphone.

Surgery Connect provides quick switching between audio and video during a call with a patient, with calls recorded and call data attached to the patient record. A full suite of web browser based Management Consoles provide a real time view of call levels and staff activity, access to call flow management and extensive analytical reporting. Integration ensures practitioners are not switching between a patchwork of discrete applications.

The Phonebar is an innovative App, pinned to the bottom of the PC screen, which brings all telecoms onto the desktop for easy access.

Surgery Connect integrates with most clinical systems, including EMIS, providing a seamless and time-saving way in which clinical and admin staff can access and record patient information during a call. Surgery Connect has been tailored by feedback from healthcare professionals ensuring a system that uniquely serves the needs of GP Practices, while addressing the digital and online ambitions of the NHS.

Primarily Carla and her team "were looking for a queuing system and an automated messaging service. We were also looking for options to direct patients to different services. Surgery Connect has done this."

Integration with EMIS ensures all patient call data and call recordings are automatically attached to the patient record, with easy patient contact available directly from their popup.

Brownhill Surgery now have a wealth of additional features all designed to greatly improve the patient and staff call experience. Despite the sophistication of Surgery Connect, Carla has found the system "relatively easy to use."

Choosing the Right Solution

As part of the decision process X-on provided local reference practices who were able to answer Carla and her team's questions about their experience with Surgery Connect, providing additional reassurance they were making the right choice. After the research process it was "feedback from other surgeries" that led the Brownhill Surgery team to decide on Surgery Connect.