South West Communications Group wins North Bristol NHS Trust contract
South West Communications Group has won a £2m contract to design and install new switchboard and telecommunications facilities to North Bristol NHS Trust, in doing so illustrating the latter’s dedication to offering world class voice services to its patients and staff.
North Bristol NHS Trust is a centre of excellence in the South West region and one of the largest trusts in the country. Last year, it treated 80,000 inpatients and 44,000 day case patients, cared for more than 85,000 people through its emergency department, conducted nearly 318,000 outpatient appointments and, supported by its community midwifery service, delivered more than 5,400 babies. The Trust serves a population of around 500,000 people in its locality but its national and international reputation for its specialist tertiary services means it has a catchment population of more than two million.
South West Communications Group, based in Exeter, has begun work on replacing the Trust’s existing telephone system with a multi-site, highly resilient telephony solution to its two large acute hospital sites: Frenchay and Southmead. This installation will ultimately serve more than 9,000 users across 200 sites, including community site bases, and is just a part of the Trust’s continued drive to embrace technology in order to make the healthcare experience easier for patients and staff.
The Trust was already in the fortunate position of having an advanced data network that was perfectly placed to support the flexible IP telephony solution, which can be added to or altered as the construction work continues.
The need for a new telephony solution was partly prompted by the necessary demolition of the building that hosted the existing switchboard to make way for the new state-of-the-art Southmead Hospital which is scheduled to be completed by 2013 and is just a part of the Trust’s £400m investment in a new PFI super hospital for Bristol at Southmead and new patient facilities.
However, patients will not have to wait until the completion of the hospital to immediately feel the benefit of the new Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise telephony platform. It has the capability for 90 contact centre agents that will swiftly and efficiently deal with queries regarding appointments and test results, thus eradicating any frustrating call waiting times in the process.
From early next year, patients will also benefit from a speech enabled directory that will allow callers to be automatically transferred to the consultant or department they wished to speak to by simply saying their name, promoting instant access to the Trust’s health facilities.
Patients and staff alike will benefit from an automatic appointment reminder system that will reduce the number of missed appointments and make optimal use of the Trust’s staff’s time. Waiting room pagers will also be a part of the solution to enable patients to roam around the hospitals’ facilities rather than having to remain in designated waiting rooms.
Staff will gain further benefits from the Alcatel-Lucent Unified Communications application that enables the use of desktop conferencing to promote more efficient inter-site communication and saves resources on travel time and expenditure. This feature is especially important for members of staff working at community hospitals and health centres.
Martin Bell, director of IM&T at North Bristol NHS Trust said “This solution will transform the way we work and support changes in how we deliver healthcare – and is being approached as a transformational programme of change. Communications are vital to any healthcare organisation. It’s the first point of contact for many patients, and vital for our staff to be able to communicate effectively.”
“Alcatel-Lucent via South West Communications Group will enable us to deliver modern communications for the benefit of staff and patients – from inclusive communications for our community workers, easier dialing and access to services for patients, to lone worker solutions – and to introduce video conferencing to the desktop for many staff, enhancing how communications are done”.
“This partnership with South West Communications Group and Alcatel-Lucent sets up the foundation and platform for future strategic development and growth, enabling us to get ready for the new hospital at Southmead, and ensure patients benefit from what we can offer in terms of communications”.
Harry Langley, managing director of South West Communications Group, said: “We are extremely proud to have won this contract after a lengthy tender process. We have a long history of designing and installing communications solutions for public health bodies and this is one of the most exciting we have dealt with.
“It is very satisfying to be working with North Bristol NHS Trust in that they are striving to make the best use of technology to make things life easier for their patients and staff. South West Communications Group has the expertise, experience and knowledge of cutting edge solutions that can help the Trust make the healthcare experience a better one for everyone concerned.”
For more on this story, see below:
British Journal of Healthcare Computing and Information
Monday, October 26th, 2009 [back to top]
