Case Study: Envisage - South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit

Envisage Waiting Room TV and Patient Call System

Nadine Thomas, Senior Project Manager IM&T Planning and Programmes

"The benefits of being able to communicate information to patients through Numed Envisage are clear. Patients are much more likely to visit the right port of call for their symptoms and be aware of the services available to them. The CSU have delivered a cost-effective, real-time system, which is beneficial for the patients."

The SC&W Commissioning support unit works with 84 surgeries in Gloucestershire. Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group wanted to be able to provide relevant and timely information to 627,452 GP surgery patients across all of the 6 localities within Gloucestershire. Patient on line access was also being switched on at all 84 practices in the region and large plasma media screens would provide an easy method to promote this to patients.

Gloucestershire practices use a variety of clinical systems (SystmOne, EMIS Web, INPS Vision/ Aeros) and Numed Envisage was chosen because it was compatible with all of the systems, and the patient call facility would integrate with these allowing doctors and nurses to call their patients to the correct consulting room directly through the waiting room screen.   

The Envisage system provides unlimited access to a media library with over 350 articles on a wide variety of health awareness topics. The range of information presented on the screens includes that provided by the CCG, as well as localised messages from the surgeries themselves.  Messages can include relevant advice such as winter flue vaccination campaigns and also NHS campaigns. Envisage was chosen because it has such a vast range of easy to digest health awareness messages with large, easy to read text.

Numed were really efficient at conducting all of the site surveys in a short time-frame, and the team always responded to any queries promptly.  We have been really pleased that Numed have been so flexible and patient in their approach, when practices frequently change their minds on their requirements. Practices Managers are now reporting that the installations ran very smoothly, especially at one practice with 3 waiting rooms on 3 floors, which all needed to be interlinked.

The benefits of being able to communicate information to patients through Numed Envisage are clear. Patients are much more likely to visit the right port of call for their symptoms and be aware of the services available to them. The CSU have delivered a cost-effective, real-time system, which is beneficial for the patients. The Gloucestershire CCG is very excited about the prospect of being able to distribute and run campaigns to all of the 6 localities in Gloucestershire.