April 2019
Skerne Medical Group is a 15,500 patient GP surgery with three County Durham sites employing 50 staff with the largest site hosting the administration team. In addition to general medical consultations Skerne also offer specialist clinics such as Cervical Screening, Chronic Illness Management, Contraceptive and Maternity Services, Smoking Cessation, Vaccinations, Child Health Surveillance and Minor Surgery.
The Challenge
As the Skerne Medical Group are spread across three sites they needed a phone system which would maintain efficient staff to patient contact irrespective of staff location. They "required a system that had flexibility to change and adapt given the complex set up of our practice. With staff regularly moving between sites we have previously been unable to get specific call data on individual staff."
Skerne also needed to queue inbound calls with routing to any of the staff across the three sites when needed, requiring "a system that operated on a queue basis with calls diverted to other sites if required to spread the workload. Call recording was a must for both inbound and outbound."
The Solution
Surgery Connect has provided the features Practice manager Neil Bunney needed: "Individual data on staff, the call queuing system with the ability to have specific timings on some of the options, excellent quality on call recording, the diary system for planning staff training days etc., and the algorithm that searches all logged in staff and directs calls to those that have been 'idle' the longest, evenly spreading the workload."
Management also considered cost savings during the selection process: "Having call charges included has certainly saved us money. We had 3 companies quote for a new system and X-on offered the best value for money for the features offered within their system."
Skerne Medical Group Says
"From the initial meeting to discuss your requirements the service is excellent and is centred around what you require and not the telephone company. The final product is tailored to meet the needs of your business and has the flexibility to change and adapt for any future changes. All done with very friendly and knowledgeable staff.
"If there are any issues they are resolved within the service level agreement times and regularly well within these times. The training provided for all staff was very good and having a trainer on site on the go live date gave the staff a lot of confidence in using the system.
"The engineers when installing the system were excellent. They worked over a weekend and the standards of work were second to none. Despite a complex installation everything was left in an immaculate condition, it was difficult to tell engineers had been in the premises.
"As with any new system it takes time to understand the functionality, however after a few weeks everyone found the system very user friendly. All of the staff at X-on are extremely helpful."
Neil Bunney
Practice Manager
Skerne Medical Group
doctorsnhs.co.uk
For further information on Surgery Connect please call Sales on 0333 332 0000.
