It’s something of an understatement to say that the last few years have been hard going for GP surgeries! If we’ve learnt anything from the challenges surgeries have faced throughout the pandemic, it’s that having a robust, agile, up to date communications system is essential not just for day to day operations but in the face of crises too.  In fact, we found that those surgeries who had already taken stock of their communications system and invested in modernisation or who acted quickly when the pandemic hit, dealt with the challenges of 2020 and 2021 much better than those who were trying to work with an antiquated system. 

Now in 2022 and hopefully coming out of the pandemic into a world of huge waiting lists for care and reduced funding, the pressure is sadly still on for healthcare professionals.  In that perfect storm of conditions it can be tempting to hunker down and do nothing till is passes but in reality, now is THE best time to give your communication system a health check to make sure your surgery and your staff can be most effective: 

Would you benefit from dedicated phone lines? 

Surgeries field a huge variety of enquiries we know but there absolutely are some common themes running through, not to mention the seasonality of certain conditions like flu.   Would it help your patients and team members to have dedicated phone lines for recurring queries so that patients can reach the best person or team to help in that moment? 

Do you have staff working in the community – how do you keep in touch? 

You want your community practitioners to have a direct line to the surgery, wherever they’re working and whoever they’re visiting at home.  Your remote teams may benefit from having a VoIP handset they can plug into a router to have instant access to your internal network, contacts and colleagues. Mobiles can be included within the on premises or cloud phone system giving staff the same communications experience as being based in the office. 

How are your hold times? 

The longer patients are kept waiting, the more frustrated they become and the worse the experience is for staff and caller alike.  Could you benefit from an auto attendant feature that allows your system to identify the reason for incoming calls and using a comprehensive menu system to divert calls to the most appropriate destination to reduce wait times and frustration for callers?  It’s a standard part of any of our phone systems and surgeries we’ve worked with really make use of it. 

Are your staff able to work effectively together? Hunt Groups could help. 

A hunt group will allow one incoming call to ring on multiple lines, giving a team of staff the option of answering and reducing pressure on a single teammate.  It helps spread the workload between colleagues rather than relying on one person to be on the end of the phone.  It’s also a fantastic feature if you still have staff working from home. 

A VoIP system will improve your communications with patients now and give you the peace of mind that whatever the future throws at us, you’re ready.  It may not be something you want to think about but it is one of the easiest, cheapest and most beneficial things Practice Managers can do to protect their surgeries going forwards.

Contact the team at Equations on 01237 420010 to discuss what your surgery needs.