Case Study
Portland Medical
How LineIn’s new clinical triage support service transformed staff morale and improved patient access at Portland Medical.
Challenges
Challenges Times for Frontline GP Staff
Portland Medical, a large GP surgery in South Norwood, London, faces pressures similar to those of many other practices. Recent months have seen a surge in demand from its 14,500 patients, leading to frontline workers managing increasingly frustrated members of the public.
2%
Staff absence rates have reduced from 9% to 2%
½
Average phone answering time halved
80%
80% of patients now find receptionists helpful
An Overview
The introduction of total triage at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic significantly increased the workload. Doctors needed more detailed information from patients to respond effectively, which placed extra pressure on the reception team. Reception and admin staff were tasked with capturing this information, processing each enquiry, and resolving or redirecting them, all while striving to meet QOF targets and manage other administrative tasks.
This added pressure led to an overworked team, impacting the entire practice. Doctors experienced inconsistent quality in the information collected, often requiring follow-up with patients. Reception staff faced high absence rates of around 9%, struggled with recruitment, and saw a decline in patient access, leading to dissatisfaction among both patients and staff.
To address these issues, the surgery sought assistance from Klinik, to total triage provider. Klinik’s online consultation system, accessible via the practice’s website, and usable by practice staff on a patient’s behalf, features a user-friendly interface and adaptive set of questions. This system efficiently captures patient enquiries, whether submitted online, over the phone, or face-to-face, and provides a concise summary of patient needs for the surgery staff to act upon.
While the online system alleviated some pressure, phone enquiries continued to burden the already-stretched reception team. Recognising the need for a more efficient solution, Portland Medical’s practice manager Flemming Jensen decided to introduce LineIn in 2022. LineIn was brought in to handle all phone enquiries, aiming to ease the load on reception staff and improve the overall process of capturing patient needs.
What we did
Clinical Triage Support Provides a Safe and Sustainable Solution
LineIn is a UK-based, flexible, and clinically supervised clinical triage support service that effectively handles patient phone enquiries, relieving the reception team from the task of capturing patients’ health concerns.
At LineIn, first contact advisors use Klinik’s online triage technology to guide patients through a series of questions about their clinical or non-clinical needs. This process generates highly actionable content and treatment recommendations for the clinical team, reception staff, and the wider practice team, utilising the structured patient history-taking algorithm provided by the Klinik system.
How LineIn Works
Highly trained first contact staff at a clinically supervised central triage support hub guide phone enquirers through adaptive questions tailored to their responses.
The system analyses patient answers to produce a concise patient history, prioritising each case and highlighting any red flags that may require urgent attention. This ensures that practice clinical staff can refer patients directly to emergency care when necessary. The system also helps allocate calls to the most appropriate team within the practice, with recommendations for next steps. This high-quality information empowers each practice team to respond appropriately. For example, doctors can now make more informed decisions about consultation types and determine the correct patient pathway.
The Result
The reception team experience less stress, as they no longer need to take extensive details over the phone. This gives them more time to resolve patient queries and support the practice in meeting its quality targets. Doctors benefit from having highly relevant information to make the best clinical decisions, regardless of how a patient contacts the practice. Patients receive a more responsive service, with phone answering times reduced to under 7 minutes from over 14 minutes previously. Now, 80% of patients report finding the receptionists at this GP practice helpful.
These improvements have boosted practice morale. Staff absence rates have dropped from 9% to 2% and recruitment has become easier as the practice can offer new starters a more manageable workload.
Building on this success, Portland Medical is now exploring how LineIn can support clinical triage requirements across multiple sites in collaboration with a large GP group.
“LineIn has provided the practice with greater control over our workload. We no longer feel overwhelmed by the high call volume; instead, we now have a smarter triage system that supports every method of patient enquiry. LineIn allows us to concentrate on what we aim to do best: delivering high-quality, responsive patient care.”
- Dr Yusuf Rajbee, Portland Medical
Summary
GP practices across the country are under growing pressure to meet the increasing demand for healthcare access. The burden often falls heavily on GP receptionists, who play a key role in managing the demand. High absence rates, recruitment difficulties, and patient access and staff morale are common challenges. However, a new approach to clinical triage is now available, alleviating pressure on reception teams, reducing patient waiting times, and improving productivity throughout the entire practice.
"I now have the headspace to focus on solutions for our patients, thanks to LineIn for taking all the inbound calls"
Patient Advisor Vasundhra
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