Vision Online Services (VOS) - What the patient wants
Marylebone Health Centre in London has been using the Appointments module of Vision Online Services (VOS) since January 2011. The Health Centre has six Doctors, two nurses and 8,300 patients. We got in touch with Practice Manager, Jeanette Creaser, to see how their patients have embraced this exciting new service.
Marylebone Health Centre was one of the VOS pilot sites and they initially offered patients ten appointments each week. Jeanette explains that this had to be increased quickly; “One week after going live we needed to release an additional ten appointments straight away, currently it’s up to forty and these all go, every week!”
The general public has readily accepted the internet as a safe and secure way of accessing confidential information and VOS is not just for younger patients, as Jeanette explains; “Patients of all ages are using VOS – the service is especially helpful for our older generation of patients who are familiar with using the internet for shopping.” Jeanette believes that one of the main benefits of having VOS is the amount of administration time it can save; “We have reduced the complaints we used to have about access to our Health Centre, it has reduced the number of telephone calls we have each morning, and as cancellations now happen more easily we have fewer DNAs. Even patients have commented about the difference with getting through on the telephone!”
VOS has been designed to benefit the patients as well as reducing the administrative burden on practices. Marylebone Health Centre’s patients agree; “Our patients love it, they would like everything online now! They find it easy to book and cancel their GP and Nurse appointments and they like the fact that they can check their appointments online, especially if they’ve forgotten what they booked. This has reduced further calls to the Health Centre.”
We asked Jeanette if she would recommend Vision Online Appointments to other practices and she replied, “Most definitely! It is helping with our long term goals of better access, fewer DNAs and the ability to increase the efficiency of our reception.”
Want to know more?
- Give your patients the ability to manage their own appointments with Vision Online Appointments
- Reduce administration time with Vision Online Repeats