A senior GP in this West Country practice realised that they were in danger of suffering financial penalties as a result of the 2009 GP Patient Survey. Although their phone system was only a few years old the number of patients registered had increased significantly and many had complained about not being able to contact the surgery as the lines always seemed busy.

The Practice partners wanted to keep any expenditure on 'technology' to a minimum, but also realised the importance of improving the way that patients could contact them.

Customer Requirements

• 25 extensions for medical and administrative staff
• Ability to use the existing ISDN connection to the public telephone network and keep existing phone numbers so that there would be no need to alter documentation or confuse patients
• A way to easily increase the number of phone lines for temporary periods at very low cost, to cope with unplanned emergencies
• Flexibility in who could answer incoming calls (call groups)
• Ensuring that patients and other callers never got a busy tone but were always answered
• An efficient call queuing system that told callers how long they might need to wait and gave them options to leave voicemails or be diverted to a variety of information lines
• A way for on-call staff to be contacted - or make contact - as if they were in the practice.
• Efficient cost control of calls
• A way of measuring numbers of calls and how well they were answered, so that Patient Satisfaction could be improved
• Ensuring that patients could still get through to the practice even if there were a fault on the phone lines

Perihelion Telecom Solution

• Perihelion Telecom proposed the Perihelion HS Voice Server configured for thirty
• extensions, all of which could call via the Perihelion Resilience Service in case of a
• fault on the PSTN lines. Seven of the extensions would be configured as ‘roaming’
• accounts for the on-call staff.
• The Voice Server works alongside the existing PBX, enabling all existing phones to be used as they always have.
• Low cost VoIP numbers were configured on the Voice Server to enable higher numbers of simultaneous incoming calls, leaving the PSTN lines free for outgoing calls.
• Call groups were implemented to enable certain staff to answer incoming calls at high-volume times of day, such as first thing in the morning
• Information messages were recorded to give patients guidance on ordering prescriptions, making appointments and dealing with specific ailments (such as bird flu and swine flu)
• Full training was provided in the easy-to-use interface to enable new members of staff to be set up, and announcement messages to be changed, quickly and simply.

Benefits of Solution

• The exisiting investment in their phone system was preserved while giving the practice the benefits of an up-to-date IP-PBX - at a very low cost - and the possibility of gradually migrating to next-generation handsets such as display and video phones.
• The incoming VoIP lines allow far higher numbers of patients to call in at once without hearing the engaged tone.
• At peak times all staff can easily answer any incoming call at their desks
• The number of patients needing to speak to someone has been reduced by giving them the option to hear automated messages which can be easily implemented by suitable staff within the practice (no need to call in maintenance engineers).
• A call statistics package was implemented to give, for example, full information on call volumes, calls answered or lost or how long callers have to wait for an answer.
• The practice is able to operate more efficiently without needing to take on more staff
• Patient satisfaction has increased