Efficiency and productivity at Whittington Hospital Imaging Department

CST MediCall™ pager system helps manage increased patient numbers from 96,000 to 150,000 per year

Since Whittington Hospital, North London, opened its new Imaging Department in November 2006, its throughput has increased from 96,000 patients per year to 150,000, within the same environment.

This dramatic increase is partly due to improvements in efficiency – improvements that have been significantly assisted by the 60 MediCall ‘patient pagers’ supplied by Call Systems Technology. Recep Suleyman, Whittington hospital’s imaging services general manager, estimates they enable staff to save at least 15 hours a day across the department. Today reception, consultants and radiology staff rarely need to leave their posts to find or accompany the next patient. The system enables maximum use of the imaging rooms too, enabling higher throughput.

“With this system pagers are distributed to patients at the reception desk, and there is clear signposting throughout the imaging facility,” he adds. “Patients arriving at the reception don’t have to sit for long in the waiting area.” 

Handed a pager on arrival, patients can walk about, visit the shop or cafe on other hospital floors, and return for their appointments in the third-floor department at the correct time. When the pager alerts them, able patients can make their own way to the appropriate scanning facility by following the signposting – there’s no need for staff members to accompany or to direct them. Patients simply hand back their pagers when they arrive at the room they are directed to attend.

The waiting area is more pleasant for patients and reception staff because there are no obtrusive announcements. There is no need to call out or use loudspeakers, since the patients can be contacted via the MediCall pagers.

With 22 imaging rooms, including some high-technology scanning rooms, Recep Suleyman needed a highly efficient way of using each facility and minimising idle time between X-rays or scans.

To achieve this, each room is served by two separate dressing/changing rooms so that patients can ‘flow’ almost continuously into the X-ray or scanning systems. As each patient leaves after dressing, the next one waiting is paged to the empty changing room, so that he or she can enter the imaging room immediately it becomes free.

“The system improves productivity by allowing clinical staff to call patients without spending time walking between the imaging and waiting rooms.  And now our patients don’t have to wait for long periods in waiting areas, which could cause stress and discomfort,” says Recep Suleyman. “Our MediCall system gives outpatients and their companions freedom. They can visit the cafeteria, shops or any other hospital facility – and we can contact them when we need them.”

MediCall pagers include three alerts, bleep, flashing light and vibration, to assist with common disability issues.

The latest MediCall pagers have additional features, for example, recorded voice messages and an anti-viral, anti-bacterial coating that kills common germs.

For details, freephone Call Systems Technology on 0800 389 5642 or 020 8381 1338, email the company at solutions@call-systems.com or visit the CST website www.call-systems.com.