Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) – a National Health Service (NHS) Trust which offers a range of medical services for patients in the West Midlands area – has announced that it is to replace its existing network of business phone systems with a single state of the art business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) system.
BCHC says that its current voice telephony arrangements are no longer considered an effective solution for the complexity of its communications needs, which consist of catering for 2,500 staff across a range of surgeries, hospitals and specialist treatment centres.
The Trust says that the demands upon its existing business phone systems are further complicated by its need to maintain a ‘one stop’ 24-hour operator service for all medical and referral enquiries from its customers.
On top of these challenges, BCHC also says it has had to respond to changing NHS Trust funding arrangements and the recent implementation of a new governance and administrative structure for all UK NHS Trusts.
By deploying the new business VoIP system, the Trust says it is convinced it is investing in a totally cost-effective, efficient, reliable and robust telephone communications technology, capable of meeting the exacting needs of a modern healthcare organisation, as well as conforming to its strict governance requirements.
Commenting on the internet protocol (IP) telephony system chosen, the Trust’s ICT project manager, David Hope, said:
“[It] gave us the right balance of functionality and cost, but above all…could meet our tight deadlines for implementation.”
Among other features said to be included in the Trust’s new business VoIP system is the capacity to transmit data over the IP telephony network, a built-in directory into which staff can themselves input any changes to their individual contact entries, and a monitoring function which can be used to compile statistics on call-answering targets.
