4.1. Understanding your current telephone infrastructure

Your telephone system is often the first point of contact that a patient has with your practice. This system can enhance the patient journey or disrupt it.

Negative phone experiences include:

• getting an engaged tone frequently;
• a ringing phone that no one answers;
• going through to an answering machine rather than to practice staff; and
• a telephone system that has a complex variety of options (eg press 1 for X and press 2 for Y etc).

Your telephone system should be driven by your patients’ needs. This section will enable you to:

• understand your current telephone system and help you to make a decision to invest in a new system or upgrade your existing one;
• research and identify the options and solutions that are available using your current set-up; and
• use all this knowledge to invest in the most appropriate system for your practice.

The majority of solutions in this section will be dependent upon your financial resources,which may limit your options. The glossary helps to explain any technical terms thare are used in this section.

By understanding how your current telephone infrastructure operates, you will be able to decide whether to upgrade or replace it.

Your current telephone infrastructure will include the following parts:

• the physical telephone system itself;
• equipment such as switchboard, telephone switch, private branch exchange (see glossary);
• the telephone and fax lines (analogue and digital); and
• Advanced telephone infrastructures such as an internet broadband connection.

How to gain an understanding of your current telephone infrastructure

It’s useful to break this task up into three parts as below. On each of these pages, you will find a process map and corresponding checklist to work through. You may find it helpful to talk through some of the checklists with your current telephone supplier.

Process Map and Checklist 1

Process Map and Checklist 2

Process Map and Checklist 3