IN 2009, Mowbray Square Medical Centre opened its doors to patients, offering one central building for the East Parade Surgery, Park Parade Surgery, The Spa Surgery and St Luke’s Surgery.
Important to the development was the requirement to modernise operations to meet 21st-century standards and to enable the four practices involved to manage each practice, shared services and clinics efficiently.
To meet this challenge, the local PCT and individual practice managers strategically reviewed the IT infrastructure for the centre. Elaine Turner, practice manager at East Parade Surgery, said: “Patient throughflow is extremely important to the day-to-day functioning of each surgery.
“As we moved into our new premises we wanted to take the opportunity to utilise technology to further enhance our processes, remove timely reception tasks and release more time to care. As such, we required a solution that would be able to electronically manage patient throughput for our shared clinics, as well as each individual surgery. We knew our clinical system, SytmOne, was able to do this, but needed a digital display system able to show the necessary information pertaining to each separate practice, on the correct screen, in the right waiting room, across the Mowbray Square Medical Centre premises. We also wanted patients to be able to self check-in to all our practice surgeries as well as our shared clinics.
We needed a digital display system able to show the necessary information pertaining to each separate practice, on the correct screen, in the right waiting room, across the Mowbray Square Medical Centre premises
“Three of the practices had been using Jayex’s self check-in technology for some time and were really pleased with the system. On investigation we saw how Jayex could also provide intuitive digital display screens that incorporated patient call and informative medical messages on individual LCD screens and that these could be tailored to meet the specific requirements of our new medical centre.”
The practices chose Jayex’s waiting room management solution, Enlighten, and worked with the company in the initial implementation to embed patient check-in and call displays with the existing clinical system. Essentially, this has allowed GPs to be alerted when their next patient has arrived, as well as call their patients from one system with the relevant patient name and consultation room being clearly displayed on the relevant screen in the correct waiting room.
Developed as a web application providing a generic solution for multi-practice GP sites, acute trusts, lift buildings and polyclinic environments, the solution enhances the patient experience from arrival through to consultation, while providing staff with up-to-date demographic and trend information. The auto-arrivals touch screen interface and ‘next patient’ call boards are centrally controlled, creating a generic arrivals and call system for all patients with valid appointments. Practices can also bespoke different elements of the system, giving them flexibility and the ability to ‘personalise’ their screens.
Turner said: “The complete waiting room management solution from Jayex has certainly been a success. 95% of our patients use the self check-in, significantly reducing waiting times at reception for the patients and freeing up time for administrative staff to focus on other critical tasks. If we did not have the Jayex technology we would require additional staff on reception and the costs associated with employing more staff are well known.”
The digital display technology offers Mowbray Square Medical Centre an all-in-one solution for creating and running its own digital channel to enhance patient communication and deliver visual information to waiting patients.
95% of our patients use the self check-in, significantly reducing waiting times at reception for the patients and freeing up time for administrative staff to focus on other critical tasks. If we did not have the Jayex technology we would require additional staff on reception and the costs associated with employing more staff are well known
Turner said: “The visual displays are easily configurable and offer each practice the opportunity to create timely healthcare messages and information appropriate to their surgery. For example, during flu clinics at East Parade Surgery, we display public awareness information at the same time as messages requesting patients to prepare for their flu vaccination by removing their jackets and rolling-up their sleeves. Along with these messages, there is a link to the BBC News website that is always running.
“Through the Jayex technology we are able to inform and educate patients in the time between arrival and their appointment, as well as ensure they are ready for the clinician during the busiest clinics of the year. We also time messages for patients informing them when a medical student is in surgery with one of our regular GPs.
“Since go-live, Mowbray Square Medical Centre has been able to see measurable benefits and has received positive feedback from patients. Through the support of Jayex we have been able to automate patient throughput, educate patients while they wait, modernise operations, see tangible cost-savings in administrative areas and, most importantly, deliver a high-quality service to all of our patients.”
