Heartbeat September 2018

Community contact centre
goes digital
Every year we send a colossal amount
of post to patients who are eagerly
awaiting appointments, results and
referrals. However thanks to an
innovation in the community contact
centre, the team are leading the way in
embedding the use of email in patient
contact.
To learn more about what the team are
doing, Heartbeat caught up with Lucille
Hedges, Community Contact Centre Lead.
She said: “We are the single central point
of contact for eight community services and
for a long while now have been looking to
see what we could do to develop how we
manage our patient correspondence.
“We take approximately 16,500 calls a
month; processing referrals, booking and
rescheduling appointments, many of which
lead to notifications being sent to the
patient. Traditionally this has always been a
letter being posted but since a high number
of our patients now have a smart phone,
we began looking into emailing our letters
directly to patients.”
Community Contact Centre Agent,
Christopher Lal
The community contact centre took
the decision to embark on collecting
patient email addresses as part of our
organisation’s digital strategy for electronic
communication to patients. This process
also involved asking the patients to
undertake an electronic verification process
on the community patient administration
system, SystmOne provided by TPP.
The service also lobbied TPP to enable
attachments to be included in the email
CORPORATE AND GENERAL
NEWS
which means patients can receive their
outcome letters electronically.
Lucille added: " The new processes
mean we’ll soon not only be saving time
in not having to print, pack and post all
of the letters we generate, but we’ll also
be saving a significant amount of money
spent on processing outcome letters."
To bring the new vision to life, the
community contact centre team has
pledged to ask each and every patient
they come in to contact with for their
email address, adding to their already
healthy total of approximately 12,000
patients who will soon be moving from
snail mail to email.
To find out more about the work
that the community contact centre
are doing, email Lucille Hedges on
lucille.hedges@nhs.net
“One of the best LiA events I have been
to.”
A second Listening into Action (LiA)
session, organised by the volunteer
service, has been praised for being an
informative and engaging event.
Liza Gill, Volunteer Service Manager, said:
“We were pleased that the event was
successful and we received great feedback
on ways of improving our service.
“It was also a good opportunity for us to
explain to colleagues the benefits of having
volunteers in their teams and to address
their concerns, such as what volunteers
could do and could not do, and to reassure
everyone that volunteers are here to
support the teams, not to replace paid
employment."
Everyone was also invited to share their
thoughts on different topics, such as how
to raise the profile of the volunteer service
across the organisation and identify which
teams might need support.
Matron, Natalie Whitton, who went to the
event, said: “I really think this is one of the
best LiA sessions I have been to.
“I have learned a lot more about the service
and how the team can help us to find the
right people to support our patients.
“I think having volunteers will definitely
make a big difference. For example, they
could spend time with patients by having
a conversation with them, or helping them
with any mobility issues they have. The
options are endless.
“I would recommend colleagues visit similar
events in the future. It’s such a good way to
learn more about what is going on within
the organisation and share their knowledge
within their teams.”
Volunteer Karamjit Kaur, shared her story
with the audience. She said: “I have been
volunteering at AMU 1 for four months
and I love every bit of it.
“I enjoy spending time with patients and
it’s worthwhile when patients thank me
for helping them.
“Volunteering really motivates me to
become a nurse in the future and I
always look forward to coming into the
hospital and supporting the team.”
Do you want a volunteer? Get in
touch with the volunteer service
email swbh.volunteer@nhs.net or
call extension 4855.
L-R: Jonathan Maddison, Volunteer Project Manager; Senior Sister, Jane Burton; Matron, Natalie
Whitton; Ward Manager, Joy Walker and Volunteer, Barbara Emms
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