September 2021
Ilkley & Wharfdale Medical Practice provides essential, additional and enhanced services under the General Medical NHS Contract to 61,000 patients in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, alongside a wide range of non NHS services.
The Challenge
Ilkley & Wharfdale Medical Practice needed to upgrade their telephony and preferably integrate with their SystmOne clinical system. As Practice Manager Rachael Pengelly points out, they "had a very antiquated phone system. We couldn't get phone lines in or out. Patients were complaining; clinicians and doctors couldn't get outside lines."
Rachael was also keen that the new system included call recording, so interactions with patients could be analysed at a later date, providing protection for staff and a valuable training resource.
The Solution
Ilkley & Wharfdale Medical Practice decided to go with Surgery Connect as it integrates fully with SystmOne, providing functionality such as receiving and making calls directly from the patient record, with call recordings linked to the patient record. Rachael observes: "We've had the opportunity to listen back to a couple of calls. Patients who've been really difficult. I think it's quite interesting to listen back to what actually has been said."
Rachel discovered Surgery Connect via "recommendation from other Practice Managers. There is a national Practice Managers' Facebook group, which is a closed group. I posted on there 'we're looking to change phone systems, who do you recommend?'. You came out by far the tops with all the recommendations. That's why I came to you."
Patient Callback, a feature that allows patients to maintain their queue position and be called back when they reach the top of the queue has "gone down well with patients. We have had a few patients actually say how fantastic the phone system is as a result."
The team at Ilkley & Wharfdale Medical Practice also appreciate "being able to see the calls and how many are coming in on what day." User consoles provide real time call statistics with downloadable reports providing the granular detail needed by Rachael when deploying practice resources.
"The system has some great functions such as the softphone and integration with our clinical system. After 2 months staff are getting used to using the phone and I'm getting used to using the desktop.
"The transition of the phone system was incredibly smooth. We didn't have any issues whatsoever." The site survey had revealed that much of the needed cabling was already installed making the process quick and simple "this is the best setup I've seen for installing a phone system. Charles, the engineer, was brilliant."
"Go live day; I was anxious because I didn't know what to expect. Charles just came and said 'We've swapped'. I went 'what?' He went 'Yeah, you can unplug all your phones' and we're like, 'really'? So we just went around taking all the old phones out and we were done. It was great."
Ilkley & Wharfdale Medical Practice Says
"Excellent company to work with, it's been brilliant so far. It's all been really, really positive.
"Install and go live day went incredibly smoothly and I cannot praise the staff enough for their help and support.
"We would highly recommend X-on to any other GP practice.
"It's like 'welcome to the new world'."
Rachael Pengelly
Practice Manager
Ilkley & Wharfdale Medical Practice
iwmp.co.uk
For further information on Surgery Connect please call Sales on 0333 332 0000.
