The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust is working with Cinos to modernise its unified communications platform.
The Cisco-powered unified communications platform will provide and combine multiple communications channels for the trust’s 6,500 employees, such as voice, video, personal and team messaging, voicemail, and content sharing.
And it will give staff the tools and ability to work more flexibly on site and when working remotely, including extending audio and video calls to Microsoft Teams.
Liam Abbott, chief technology officer at the trust, said: “The benefits of the new platform will also extend to patients, as a new centrally-managed contact centre will make it easier for them to engage with our clinical services.
“By improving the quality and efficiency of communications, we’re making our services more accessible to those who depend on them.”
The trust, which provides acute treatment and care for around 500,000 people in Bath and the surrounding areas, required a cloud-based platform – one that allows it quickly to scale up the service as, and when, needed; is able to support the integration of care services; and can connect the trust’s with GP surgeries, community hospitals, and large-scale COVID-19 vaccination centres.
The relationship between the Trust and Cinos was established in 2016 where it chose Cinos to replace its telephone system.
The Cinos Cloud Unified Communication service builds on this foundation, and will provide the trust with a robust, easy-to-use, and always-available unified communications platform.
The Cisco Flex Plan Enterprise Agreement licensing model employed by the service provides all users with access to all collaboration capability, driving standardisation across the entire organisation, while giving clinicians and staff the flexibility required to co-ordinate health and care services across the local area.
The updates to the telephony system and contact centre will also lay the foundations for any future updates that the trust requires, enabling it to easily build on the existing infrastructure.
Tony King, director of healthcare at Cinos, said: “Having a robust and resilient communication infrastructure is important for any organisation, but for an acute trust it is critical.
“Our experience and deep understanding of this type of environment enables us to deliver best practice, value and innovation, especially as organisations look to transition to more-integrated models of care.”
The rollout of the platform began in March, with go live planned for September.