Long Eaton Health Centre implements VoIP system
- 30 January 2007
Long Eaton Health Centre, an all-in-one clinic in Derbyshire County PCT has gone live with a new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony system from NEC Philips Unified Solutions.
The SOPHO 2000 IPS will provide Long Eaton with a hybrid IP communications infrastructure allowing a smooth migration towards fully scalable native IP telephony, saving the health centre on call charges.
The new system which cost approximately £65,000 will enable the centre to deal with the 1,500 patient calls and enquiries it receives on a daily basis.
The health centre only opened last May and is funded and owned by the Southern Derbyshire Local Improvement Finance Trust Company (LIFTCo). It provides a wide range of primary and community health services including a GP practice, pharmacy, child health clinic, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy.
NEC Philips’ marketing manager, Ian Guest told E-Health Insider Primary Care that Long Eaton wanted a system that offered resilience and call traffic management: “The IPS offers both analogue and digital functionality, as well as its IP infrastructure. Applications are built around it and then we gear it to the client’s requirements."
Long Eaton hope to see the call queuing facility reducing the number of enquiries being abandoned and increasing the number of calls that are resolved quicker and more effectively.
Guest said: “With the new system, they can manage all their calls using presence information. This lets the receptionist know what calls are coming through to which numbers and the calls can be handled better, offering the centre more flexibility and more visibility.”
Derwent Shared Services look after the information and communications technology for Derbyshire County PCT. Telecommunications manager, Christian Somers, said: “A new telecommunications system was required to compliment the new building that was going to make a huge difference to the community and the way in which it provides healthcare services. The vital functionality of the system that is making a difference is the call queuing facility.”
The system is integrated with users desktops allowing receptionists to field calls more effectively with the presence management functionality, enabling them to sort calls appropriately according to recipients’ status.
Somers said that patient and users had already begun to see the benefits of the new system.
“Before, the majority of patient feedback was that it was very difficult to get through first time and many callers would experience an engaged tone and would only get to speak to someone after several attempts. Now, the feedback from users and patients alike has been very positive and we look forward to continuing to work with NEC Philips to further utilise the benefits of IP telephony moving forward.”
Guest added: “We understood that Long Eaton’s biggest need was to handle calls better and give more information to staff. We worked very closely with the centre to ensure that the new system would route calls correctly and ensure that patients were not kept waiting for a call response. Staff spent a day training on the new system and the feedback to date has been good, prompting two other LIFTCo’s to agree new deals with us for a similar system.”
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