September 2021
Streatham Hill Group Practice is one of seven practices in the Streatham Primary Care Network, providing healthcare services to approximately 10,000 patients in South West London.
The Challenge
Streatham Hill Group Practice had 2 years to run on their existing telephony provider contract but Viliam Holicka, Practice Manager, wanted to improve patient contact before the practice integrated into the Streatham PCN: "We were unable to contact them; such a massive organisation with big teams which did not talk to each other. They were not good because they didn't give us freedom and they could not deliver what I needed."
Viliam was keen that in "an emergency staff would have backup with a mobile number."
The Solution
Surgery Connect is a modern highly flexible healthcare communications solution providing practices with a huge array of healthcare professional influenced features designed to promote efficient workflows and patient satisfaction, including backup mobiles that act as full featured extensions in the event of a 3rd party failure, such as accidentally digging up the local cabling. Features such as wallboards provide real time call statistics enabling managers and staff to monitor call queues and deploy resources as needed. For Viliam the "wallboard is amazing!"
Initially practices have deployed Surgery Connect individually, but the plan is that they "move to PCN collaborative working." Surgery Connect can easily be configured to create a central hub which effectively becomes the main reception, with configurable call overflows during busy times. The Streatham PCN practices all use the EMIS clinical system, which integrates fully with Surgery Connect, so the eventual scenario will be that staff can login and work from any location within the PCN and agnostically interact with the PCN call flow.
Having done the research, Viliam was pleased to be able recommend Surgery Connect to the other Practice Managers in the PCN: "I saved so much time for the other managers, otherwise each manager had to do it by themselves."
Viliam had already established a connection with X-on, having met us a few times at trade exhibitions: "I know Mark [Sales] personally, and I know the CEO Paul. When we moved to Surgery Connect, Paul came to my practice. He didn't have to, but it just feels like we are friends. A friendly relationship."
Surgery Connect provides a 'fully loaded' service on a monthly per extension rental. There may be cheaper options, but as Viliam puts it "I know that comparably, it is good value for money." With improving telephony integral to improving patient outcomes Viliam would like to see the local CCG subsidise the costs of telephony: "Telephone provision, it's one of the crucial business points of view. I would love them [CCG] to subsidise."
Surgery Connect's monthly rental includes any upgrade to the system and any new features. Practices can budget for the length of the contract as the monthly rental will not change. Viliam likened their previous provider to a "Christmas tree, because when you buy a Christmas tree, then you have to buy the lights, then the decorations… And that's the good thing about you guys; you have everything in one package and that's amazing."
Streatham Hill Group Practice Says
"You tick all the boxes for me, and that was the most important thing. So I don't need to worry.
"Good management of software so I can see what's happening.
"You're not a branch of a multi-billion company which doesn't actually care."
Viliam Holicka
Practice Manager
Streatham Hill Group Practice
shgp.co.uk
For further information on Surgery Connect please call Sales on 0333 332 0000.
