A good phone system is one of the fundamentals with a GP Surgery. Most people still ring their doctor for an appointment, however, just a simple phone system where the phone rings until its answered or the call runs off, just doesn’t cut it anymore.
GP Surgeries need a phone system that can handle a high call volume which is handled by a limited number of support staff; it needs to have features which mean that a call is never missed.
A good phone system will mean that support staff are able to job quicker and easier. It means Doctors can devote more time to patient care and patients are happier because they are able to get an appointment, quickly.
- Complaints about how long it takes to answer the phone.
- Closing for lunch and missing calls.
- It taking too long to activate an emergency procedure.
- Having to physically go and see if a colleague is available for a consult.
- Not being able to send text messages for appointment of information about flu jabs.
- Having to go physically to each consultation room to see if lab work needs to be sent off.
- Having to manually find phone numbers to call, then physically dial.
Type of Phone System
- A Hosted Phone System is effectively renting a phone system.
- A Self-hosted IP Phone System is the purchase of a dedicated system for your own use, and you choose where to host it.
- A Hybrid Phone System combines ISDN, Analogue, Digital and IP technologies in one single flexible phone system.
Which Phone System?
There are two hosted phone systems that we strongly advocate for GP Surgeries; Horizon and Wildix.
Horizon is a Hosted Phone System which is offered by our partners; Gamma. They are one of the UK’s largest network operators and they have never lost their ability to respond quickly to any queries or issues.
Wildix Phone System
Wildix are quite selective as to who supplies their products. They don’t work with distributors, but rather with a network of certified regional business partners. We are one such partner.
Wildix has been in the market since 2005 and have approached IP Phone systems, differently to other suppliers. They built the phone system with the web in mind, so the whole phone system can be used via a web browser. The majority of other suppliers had existing phone systems which they had to adapt to be web based so tend to need software downloaded.
Wildix’s claim to fame is that their system is the first 100% secure, easy-to-use, professional web-based UC&C system.
5 Key Benefits of a Wildix and Horizon, Hosted Phone Systems
- Features you can easily control – you will be in complete control of your phone system with an extensive range of call handling and management features.
- Number choice – you have total flexibility with the numbers you want to use. You can keep your existing numbers or get new numbers. Extend your business reach and use any local area number no matter where you are located.
- On-demand service with no hidden costs – you only pay for what you need on a simple per-seat basis. As you’re not buying a PBX, there’s no major hardware investment and no financing costs to consider.
- A business continuity solution – Horizon and Wildix are cloud-based so the service provides business continuity features that allow your organisation to carry on making and taking calls, whatever the circumstances.
- Lower call costs – all of the cost benefits of IP telephony including free site-to-site calls and cheaper call rates.
Top Phone System Features for GP Surgeries
There are a lot of phone system features that can help a GP Surgery. Regardless of the phone system you choose, you should ensure your phone systems enables the following features:
- Hold – you may need to check a prescription with a colleague and not want your patient to hear your conversation or any background noise, so you can pop them on hold.
- Hold Music – choose your hold music or even upload promotional messages, perhaps about flu jabs or cervical smears.
- Call Transferring – be able to divert calls to a Doctor or another colleague.
- Speed Dial – ideal for when you want to be able to call certain hospitals or departments such as maternity on a regular basis with a touch of a button.
- Voicemail-to-Email – great feature so you don’t have to log in to your voicemail to get your message; you can get the transcribed recording via email or text with the original recording.
- CLI Flexibility – Doctors may need to call patients back and not give out their direct line, so this feature allows you to present a phone number on your patient’s phone that they can call back.
- Click to Dial – when a doctor needs to call a patient, it’s ideal if that process is quick, so this feature (subject to APIs) enables you to click their phone number on your database and automatically them via your phone.
- Call Monitoring and Reporting – this enables you to determine a business case for extra resource at certain times of the day by giving you the data to back it up.
- Door Entry – connect your phone system to an intercom at the door, so you choose when to allow people into the building with a push of a button.
- Instant Messaging and File Sharing – ideal for sending messages and files across to colleagues for second opinions on blood results or ask them if they are available for a consult.
- Page – you can page multiple phones with the same message such as if there is an emergency or if you are requesting lab works.
- Monitoring barge – this is where you can have another user listen into a call, with or without the person knowing. The is ideal for those who need to train people on the phone.
- Ring Hunt Groups – perfect feature for receptions where you have a main line which is dialled but it rings on multiple receptionist’s phones either all at once or on one phone first, then another, and another.
- Busy Lamp Field – you can look at your phone and see which of your colleagues are logged on and available; you can see if you can put a call through to them.
- Do Not Disturb – doctor surgeries tend to have a lot of incoming calls and sometimes you need a few minutes to type up notes, the do not disturb feature gives you that time to suspend incoming calls.
- Call Recording – you can record all calls and listen back to them for quality control purposes or to verify what was said.
- Automated Attendant – this is great if you have separate individuals to deal with prescriptions to those who book appointments because your phone system can announce the option for incoming patients so they are transferred to the right person.
- Call Queues – GP surgeries are busy by nature but rather than losing any calls, you can set up call queues so they can wait in a queue until someone comes available. You can also set rules on this, for example, you can set it so they only wait for X amount of minutes before being offered to leave a voicemail.