September 2021
The highly qualified and trained multi-professional integrated primary Healthcare Team at Langworthy Medical Practice provide services to nearly 20,000 patients in the Salford region, using technological advances in healthcare systems for their patient's benefit.
The Challenge
Langworthy Medical Practice previously "had a very basic digital system and as we have a growing list size, we felt it was no longer fit for purpose" explains Sam Brown, Practice Manager.
The COVID period had also revealed they needed call recording as a tool in handling "difficult patients that have been abusive to our staff."
Like so many practices, the onset of COVID meant Langworthy Medical Practice also realised they needed to be able to function from home because "before the pandemic, we didn't really have homeworking."
The Solution
Surgery Connect includes an incredible array of features designed to ease the burden on Practice Managers and their staff. Call Recording means Langworthy Medical Practice have a mechanism to deal with these difficult patients as they are "able to listen back to every single call, which means that the GP can write to these patients, tell them that we've listened to the call recording, and that their behaviour isn't acceptable." They can also "use it for staff training purposes by playing back calls when somebody has handled the call really well."
The softphone, available from the user console of Surgery Connect, provides the ideal solution for staff working from home: "It's just been an amazing feature to use without staff having to use their own phones. This has taken it to a whole other level, because GPs can do the surgeries remotely. It's just allowed us to do so much more." Surgery Connect allows staff and practitioners to work from any location just as if they were still in the practice, with their location opaque to patients.
The comprehensive management reports, available via download and with a summary emailed every month, help "senior managers to look at how we're dealing with the calls, and if there's room for improvement." The reports have introduced a bit of healthy competition: "our senior receptionist looks at which receptionist has answered the most calls, so they have a bit of a competition to see who's going to answer the most calls and that person will get praised. So, they're quite competitive like that, and it's a really useful tool as it gets people motivated."
Sam suggests that with COVID having changed the way people work, that practices will reconfigure their useable space, for example areas previously used for "meeting rooms, great big rooms that just got used purely for meetings, we've now converted into office space." The flexibility of Surgery Connect means there isn't an issue in maintaining communications with any changes in layout, which provides Sam with an "opportunity to utilise those rooms to the full capacity. Surgery Connect was very supportive in that and made it nice and easy."
The wallboard displaying real-time call and queueing information is also a boon for reception who "are constantly taking an overview of the wallboard. They have it behind reception so they can see in one glance what's going on, how many calls are waiting."
Sam recalls: "I first heard a demo of Surgery Connect and I was really impressed, and we decided to go with it because we needed something that was fit for purpose. And we haven't been disappointed."
Langworthy Medical Practice Says
"Is it value for money? Yes.
"I would have no problem in recommending Surgery Connect because the support is excellent.
"Surgery Connect, it was a really simple process. I spoke to you. I told you what we needed. The next thing, all the handsets were delivered and it was plug and play. It was very straightforward and that does make a difference when you're trying to expand your business."
Sam Brown
Practice Manager
Langworthy Medical Practice
langworthymedicalpractice.co.uk
For further information on Surgery Connect please call Sales on 0333 332 0000.
