How trusts and ICSs can leverage communications Technology

Dave O’Shaughnessy, healthcare practice leader at Avaya explains how healthcare organisations can improve their communications technology

Imagine a patient management services manager concerned that the many communication channels between her hospital and its patients and primary caregivers are confusing, disjointed, and causing service delays spanning the whole organisation. She longs for a solution that unifies email addresses, phone and SMS numbers and new digital channels so that patients can communicate with a one-stop shop of healthcare services within the contact centre. Also, by enabling mobile service recording at the point of care, the organisation minimises patient data administration, which is carried out by suitable resources as opposed to medical staff. This is all entirely possible. So how can trusts and ICSs leverage communications technology to benefit patients and staff?

NHS 111 takes over 1 million calls a month That is 1 million instances in which GPs and A&Es are relieved of acting as first point of contact. This ‘outside the hospital’ approach needs emulating ‘inside the hospital.’ There is already potential for automated elements within hospital call centres, like chatbots and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) to catch the most common ‘no treatment needed’ or ‘logistical question answered’ enquiries before dialling-in an agent.

A rules-based triage, whereby the system would only ever allocate appropriate options according to myriad ‘If this then that’ conditions, would ensure only relevant services are made available to the patient. This type of routing perfectly illustrates effective digital transformation through the connection of two or more intelligent systems which are taught to speak to one another.

Think connected

Change is a constant in the NHS. Workflows must be adaptable to how hospitals operate in the dayto-day. Open APIs (Application Programmable Interfaces) mean consultants, dev teams and IT departments can rapidly design and implement workflows as needs arise. A focus on connecting systems with communications and collaborations ensures effortless experiences for all by accelerating the introduction of new workflows and facilitating the automation of even the most rudimentary and time-consuming administrative tasks.

With the right technology partner, the patient and employee experience can be designed and integrated into a communications and collaboration solution platform. With an interoperable, highly resilient, and enterprise-grade architecture, building digital workflows to transform patient care is not only fast but frictionless, delivering experiences that ‘simply work’ for staff and patients alike. Digitalfirst experiences connect all devices and systems, empowering trusts, and ICSs to truly realise the foundational promise of digital transformation.

This quick and easy healthcare Innovation Maturity Model assessment, provides immediate recommendations to help trusts or ICSs overcome obstacles in providing first-class care and experiences for both staff and patients. L