A phone system built around clinicians on the move
About Kernow Health
Kernow Health provides NHS 111 and the out-of-hours doctor service for Cornwall. It also runs the school immunisation service for Devon and Cornwall.
John Ball is Head of Digital and looks after all of the organisation’s digital services. His teams work from a main call centre in Truro and a network of bases across both counties. Many of those bases are community hospitals. Clinicians also make home visits across some of the most rural parts of the country.
The Challenge: systems that held staff back
Kernow Health’s old phone setup was built on analogue technology. It relied on equipment that was becoming obsolete and did not connect well with newer platforms.
This had a direct effect on staff. A system that is hard to use slows people down and is harder to learn.
What they needed
John’s team had two clear priorities: the system had to be easy to use and it had to be reliable. Clinicians needed quick access wherever they were working, and the IT team needed a system that was simple to support and maintain.
| “User friendliness and stability I’d say were the two biggest most important things.” |
Getting started as an early adopter
Kernow Health was among the first to move to the Ascend app. John is open that early adoption came with some challenges.
The main task was working with Cornwall IT services, who manage the network, to approve the new software. A number of app versions were also released close together during rollout. Once the latest version was in place, things settled down.
| “Once we got to the latest version, things became very stable and no issues since really.” |
Working across 15 sites, and on the road
Ascend lets Kernow Health’s clinicians log in from wherever they are working. That might be the call centre in Truro, a community hospital base, a laptop on a home visit or a work phone.
A key change is that one extension now works on any device. Under the old system, staff needed separate licences for a desktop and a softphone.
| “One extension now you can log into it from whatever device you like. So that’s made things a lot simpler.” |
The mobile app also gives the team a backup option when a clinician can’t get to a base.
| “Clinicians can log in from work phones as well, which has proven to be very valuable to get us out of a scrape now and again when clinicians aren’t able to get to a base.” |
Solving connectivity on home visits
Mobile signal is poor in many rural parts of Cornwall. That made it hard for visiting clinicians to reach Adastra, the clinical system they use for patient records.
Working with Think Healthcare, Kernow Health piloted satellite connectivity in its visiting vehicles. After a successful pilot, it is now fitted across the whole fleet. Clinicians can now reach patient records just as well in a remote cove as in Truro.
This has made a real difference:
- Electronic prescribing on visits. Clinicians no longer need paper prescriptions or the admin of reconciling them afterwards.
- Personal alarms. The alarms run on the vehicle connection, which improves staff safety.
- Audio dictation. Clinicians can dictate notes during a visit and find them waiting when they get back to their laptop.
- More patients seen. Less time at the screen and full access to records mean clinicians can see more patients, which John describes as safer for everyone.
Better data for commissioning and difficult conversations
Kernow Health’s business intelligence team draws far more from Ascend than it could from the old system. The team has built dashboards that support commissioning and contract renewals. The data also helps when partners raise questions.
| “It’s always nice to have in your back pocket when you get difficult questions on escalation calls and you’ve got partners asking questions.” |
What staff think
Staff feedback focuses on how much easier the system is to use. Clinicians can move between desktop and mobile as they go from the car to a patient’s home. This matters on long shifts.
| “It’s just more enjoyable for staff to use and I think you find less staff fatigue throughout your shift when you’re having to use a program for 10 hours in your shift.” |
Support when it matters
John points out that every system will have problems at some point. What counts is how quickly they are dealt with. He recalls a small outage on a day he was about to go out on his bike. He called his account manager, Dan:
| “Whatever Dan was doing he dropped it and was straight on the phones and sorted it.” |
The fault turned out to be in another supplier’s system. Even so, it was found and fixed quickly.
| “There was always going to be problems, and there’s always going to be issues. It’s just how we manage them.” |
John’s advice for others
John has two pieces of advice for any organisation thinking about a change:
- Bring IT in early. Involve your IT team or managed IT provider from the start.
- Check the fit. Make sure the system will work with your other systems and your network.
| “Have a drill down into the product and make sure it’s going to be a good fit for your partner systems and all of your networks. But generally, they’re a very easy and personable organisation to work with.” |
What this means for GP practices
Kernow Health’s services are different from a GP practice, but many of the challenges will feel familiar:
- Multi-site working. Many practices now work across more than one site, or share working with other practices in their PCN or neighbourhood.
- Working away from the desk. Clinicians need to make calls from home visits, from other sites, or from home.
- All-day use. Reception and care navigation teams spend their whole day on the phones, so a system that is easy to use makes a real difference.
- Ageing systems. Many practices still rely on older systems that don’t connect well with the digital tools they now use every day.
Kernow Health’s experience shows that moving to a modern cloud phone system can be done well, even as an early adopter. That relies on good planning, early involvement from IT and a supplier who responds when needed.
Find out more about Ascend
Talk to the team on 0330 058 4004
or email [email protected]
think-healthcare.co.uk