Advanced Cloud Based Telephony

A main access point to general practice is the telephone also known as Advanced-Cloud Based Telephony (A-CBT) and the NHS has provided funding and support to move all practices to this system before Mar 2024.

Practices moving to cloud-based telephony are therefore advised and encouraged to access support from the general practice improvement programme (GPIP), as this will help practices make these more holistic changes to workflows and will help with the implementation of modern general practice.

To gain the most benefit from cloud-based telephony, practices should be looking to make improvements in their overall workflows, so that patient contacts are consistently managed throughout the whole of the practice or PCN.

The South East region is ahead of many other regions as 97% of practices are now already using A-CBT and are exploring optimisation of the features available rather than implementations. Several areas are considered how exploit the potential of telephony across the PCNs. Whilst aimed at improving the 8am rush for patients, and reducing some of the overall demand and pressure, particularly where this can be managed by other means, connecting data from telephony and online service options is a good place to start to review demand and see what can be diverted either by providing information.

Benefits for GP practices

Installing Advanced Cloud Based Telephony helps practices adopt the ‘modern general practice model’, as it provides the functionality to support practices to manage calls more effectively. The enhanced reporting capability these systems provide gives better data about how patients are contacting the practice and helps practices understand and manage demand.

Advanced Cloud Based Telephony systems phone lines are now connected to the internet, making it less likely that they will become unavailable due to technical difficulties.

NHS Staff can access Advanced Cloud Based Telephony systems anywhere in the practice, this means GP practices are now more flexible to deal with requests and less reliant on a single reception team.

Benefits for patients

When patients call the practice, they will come through to an automatic call menu, which will give a range of call options, rather than sending them straight to a call handler. By listening to and using the Appropriate option for their call, they will be able to speak to an Appropriate member of staff quicker and free up the phoneline for other patient queries that are not covered in the call menu.

Patients will experience proper call queuing on the phone line when more than 4 patients are waiting. This means they will no longer have their call rejected if the lines are busy, they will instead be placed in a first come first served call queue.

Advanced-Cloud Based Telephony allow call-back features. This means when patients reach the phone they will have the option to request a call back. Using this option will save their place in the phone queue and prompt the reception team to give them a call back when they reach the front of the queue. This is a great option if they have a busy day because they can continue to carry out tasks whilst they wait in the phone queue.

Advanced-Cloud Based Telephony has text integration. This means that for certain patient enquiries such as information about clinic dates or routine Appointments they may receive a text message rather than speaking to an operator. This can save them from having to wait in phone queues and frees up the call handlers to deal with other enquiries.

Advanced-Cloud Based Telephony has automatic priority call handling. This means if patients are calling from the number they have registered with the practice, the smart telephone system will check their medical records and if they have a serious medical condition like heart failure or if they have an access requirement such as being housebound, they will be able to speak to a member of the team sooner.

Advanced Cloud Based Telephony systems are also connected to its records, meaning care navigators can identify whether or not a patient is registered with the system, meaning there will be fewer checks to verify their identity when you call.

Resources

GP Websites