Patient and Non-Patient Communications
"Whilst NHS Manchester is city wide the Voicebank is only utilized in the North of the City at present, this being due to the fact that it was commissioned when there were three separate PCT's in the city."
"The population in North Manchester is approx 180,000 and the Voicebank number is documented on the home records of all patients receiving care from the District Nursing Service. The DN's access Voicebank at least three times daily, and the night nurses two hourly, to pick up any messages from patients. This means any delegated person can access the information quickly and from a remote location, and the information is secure. Therefore this enhances patient access. This usually relates to less urgent messages as high dependancy patients usually have mobile phone numbers. However this allows any delegated person to access in the absence of the named responsible nurse."
"In addition to patient usage the main usage relates to inter-colleague and other health professional communication. This is particularly useful between day and night district nursing colleagues. The northern boundaries of the city stretch from Abbey Hey and Gorton to Cheetham Hill. Within the patch there are eight DN centres who use the Voicebank as a daily communication link with their night time colleagues."
"The main usage is:| • | Daily updates day to night staff on patient care/changes. |
| • | Referral of new patients to service from GP's, Hospitals, Nursing/Residential Homes and other agencies throughout the 24hr period. |
| • | The dissemination of information and requests for information from trust personnel FAO District Nurses. |
NB: In line with the above, one particular useful function relates to night services. At weekend and Bank Holidays in the absence of managers and administrative staff, night nurses who are unable to report for their rostered shifts, due to sickness or any reason, leave a message on the Voicebank which can then be accessed in the daytime by the night sister who is on call. This allows the sister to arrange cover as the night service is a 'double up service' (i.e. requires two staff to go out together)."
"One of the advantages I personally believe the Voicebank affords is the personalization of the messages as opposed to fax messages used in other areas. The staff agree that spoken messages do not jeopardise inter-service relationships often found in brief fax messages. The message length also is less limiting than standard answerphones."
"There is just one recent change* which we believe may impede the usage and that is the recent addition of the intro message stating the cost as 10 per minute which may concern and deter them from using."
Kath Schofield
Clinical Lead Night Service (North)
Victoria Mill Healthcare Centre
of the costs associated with making the call. Voicebank can also be used with non-0871 numbers.
Please contact our Sales Team on 0333 332 0000 to discuss Surgery Connect Voicebank.