The courthouse medical centre
Doctor’s and GP’s surgeries require reliable, cost-effective and scalable phone systems to enable them to manage a high number of inbound calls, handle sensitive data and easily get callers in touch with relevant departments and branches of the surgery; all of this must be achievable on an ever decreasing budget.
SCG provide a bespoke service to doctor’s surgeries, with feature-rich phone systems, lines and calls, broadband solutions and business mobiles to combat the challenges faced by these organisations.
Telecoms Challenges Faced by Doctor’s Surgeries
Budget restrictions
Like many public services, there have been cuts to the funding available to GPs in recent years – with a recent survey revealing three-quarters of GP partners experienced a reduction in funding over the past year.
At SCG, we believe there is a solution for any budget and will work closely with you and your staff to understand your budget restrictions and implement a system that works for you, improving staff efficiency and saving you time and money.
Whilst a new phone system may seem like a big investment, the saving that can be made by moving from legacy equipment is enormous. In fact, one of our customers saved over £3,000 a year in call charges when we migrated them to a new phone system.
Building segregated across numerous departments
Doctor’s surgeries are usually split into several different departments, with each doctor also having their own office. This can leave callers being passed around departments on hold, or result in them having to call back once they are given the correct extension number.
At SCG, we can supply business phone systems that come with auto-attendant features which takes the users initial call, then routes them to the correct person based on their requirements.
Queuing features can also be enabled, this feature is particularly useful at busy times and gives callers their position in the queue to indicate how long they may be on hold for; this can also be set up to prompt callers to try again later if their query is not urgent.
Doctors working off-site
When a doctor is off-site or in a different department, it can be frustrating for callers and reception staff when it’s not possible to forward the call through.
For data protection reasons, receptionists may be unable to give out the doctor’s personal mobile number, meaning there is no feasible method of contact for patients other than to wait for the doctor’s return.
With our business phone systems, we can make it possible to forward any call onto a mobile number without revealing the number to the caller, meaning that doctors can be reached wherever they are.
Additionally, we can provide business mobiles at very low rates, allowing your staff to keep work and personal contact details separate.
Multiple physical locations
In the same way that surgeries are often split across several departments, it’s also not uncommon for one branch to have several different physical locations. Locum doctors are also regularly used across many UK surgeries and they must also be catered for as they may work in multiple sites every day.
In these scenarios, we would recommend a phone system with call forwarding features, allowing staff to forward the caller onto the relevant location without the need to redial.
Voice recording – GDPR
In a digital age, it is vital that data is stored securely and appropriately. In instances where a patient is discussing their condition with a doctor over the phone or giving consent to receive a new treatment or different kind of medication, it’s important to keep a record of these conversations for the doctor to refer back to and to ensure the practice’s compliance.
At SCG, our business phone systems can be fitted with call recording and monitoring software, allowing you to capture and store the data you need.