South Devon Healthcare

South Devon Healthcare
NHS FoundationTrust
BTS’ CommsWare Operator Console delivers
reliability and performance improvements at
South Devon Healthcare
Like many hospitals, the Torbay switchboard
operators deal with thousands of callers
experiencing a wide range of emotions.
These callers need to be handled sensitively,
professionally and quickly, and put through to the
right person, first time.
The Torbay switchboard also handles internal
emergency calls and general enquiries.
The Problem
The replacement of its legacy telephone system with a state-of-the-art Cisco Unified Call
Manager posed a number of significant challenges for the Trust.
The Trust was determined to ensure that the quality of the switchboard service was not
compromised by ease-of-use issues or reliability problems.
The Trust also wanted to address the longstanding issue of providing the operators with a
powerful and accurate telephone directory that would be updated automatically, avoiding
the need for significant time-consuming and therefore expensive editing.
The Solution
The Trust had already invested in a BTS CommsWare Call Logging system and now decided
to take the BTS CommsWare Console and Call Handling solution as well.
The call logging system’s powerful Microsoft SQL database was extended to include all the
information that the operators required, and this then became the core of the call handling
solution.
The Trust also deployed BTS’ Database Integration Service to deliver automatic directory
updates and a single point of update for directory changes.
The operators’ call handling capability was enhanced with BTS’ extension presence, using a
Cisco TAPI integration, which allows them to see when extension is available before trying
to put a call through.
South Devon Healthcare
NHS FoundationTrust
The South Devon Health Informatics Service team chose a number of optional items from
BTS, including:
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Voice recording for every console
position, allowing operators to record
the entire call from the start, even if
they are some way into the call before
recognising they are dealing with an
abusive or threatening caller.
The Supervisor Wallboard application,
displaying real-time information on
operator availability, queue length and handling times etc.
Dual servers, to provide additional resilience.
The addition of Hunt Group Plus has provided call queuing solutions to a number of
different departments and GP Surgeries managed by the Health Informatics Service.
This final option provides flexible delivery of calls to various groups of extensions with
pre and in-queue messages, skill based routing with real-time and historic
management information.
Pay-off
The benefits of the Console were quickly realised by the operators. In particular, its ease of
use allowed them, with minimal training, to take advantage of its wide range of call handling
features.
The combination of an up-to-date directory and extension availability information enhanced
the operators’ confidence when putting calls through and noticeably reduced the number of
returned calls.
Particularly popular with the operators is the “Speed Dial” feature, which allows calls to be
put through to individuals, extensions or departments with a single click, significantly
reducing call handling time.
Hunt Group Plus has allowed cost effective call queuing features to be supplied to other
areas managed by the Health Informatics Service including a flagship GP Surgery, providing
improved answering services via the existing telephony.
Simon Lobb (Telecoms Manager) observes, “It isn’t so often that you find a company with
such an innovative product, backed up by so many years’ experience in the industry, and
with such an established customer base.
The BTS system has proved itself an overwhelming success since deployment, in what is a
very busy and demanding environment. The Voice Recording, Wallboard and Hunt Group
Plus options in addition to the main system, offer outstanding value for money. I am pleased
to be working with BTS.”

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