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Optimise Patient Access

The carefully created courses are designed to help you deliver the best possible experience for staff and patients.

What is the Access Optimisation Programme?

In primary care, delivering a great patient experience is more critical than ever. To deliver modern general practice successfully surgeries not only need to have the right tools in place, but they need to know how to utilise those tools effectively. 

The Access Optimisation Programme (AOP) supports practices to get the most out of digital telephony, through the many features of Surgery Connect. These interactive eLearning courses will help you do just that.

Explore AOP

Access Optimisation Courses

How to Navigate Courses
  • Mastering the Phonebar 2025 (EMIS Web)

    Mastering the Phonebar 2025 (EMIS Web)

    This course covers everything you need to build the skills, knowledge and confidence of Phonebar users within your practice. Helping…

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  • Mastering the Phonebar 2025 (SystmOne)

    Mastering the Phonebar 2025 (SystmOne)

    This course covers everything you need to build the skills, knowledge and confidence of Phonebar users within your practice. Helping…

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  • Advanced Clinical Integration

    Advanced Clinical Integration

    This course explores the benefits of the Phonebar’s versatile functions, discover the advantages of integrating it with your clinical system,…

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  • Navigating Patient Access With Call Routing

    Navigating Patient Access With Call Routing

    The Navigating Patient Access with Call Routing course for Surgery Connect users equips you with the skills, knowledge, and confidence…

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  • Understand Demand with Reports and Data Analysis

    Understand Demand with Reports and Data Analysis

    Through this course, you’ll discover the benefits of various reports available and you’ll learn how to analyse call traffic, optimise…

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  • Optimise Patient Callback

    Optimise Patient Callback

    This course will explain the benefits and then take you through all the options to tailor the configuration of the…

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AOP National Webinar Series

In June, as part of our Access Optimisation programme, we hosted a series of complimentary webinars focusing on the key features at the centre of improved access.

Our experts dived into the benefits of each function and provided attendees with practical insights on leveraging these features to their fullest potential. Following each webinar we collated the main Q&As that came out of each session.

View Webinars

Navigating Your eLearning Courses

The Academy offers comprehensive eLearning courses to help you maximise your Surgery Connect experience. The platform provides access to a diverse range of training resources, such as Interactive Demos, Assessments, and downloadable resources. Let's explore these features and learn how to navigate the courses to optimise your learning experience.

The Course Summary Page

Upon opening an Academy eLearning course, you will be presented with the Course Summary Page, which provides:

Course Navigation

The Academy eLearning courses are structured into Modules and Lessons, the Course Summary Page outlines the Course structure and provides a way to navigate the Course content.

Lesson Content

When you open a Lesson within a Course, the content will be laid out in a structured and methodical way, providing you with a distraction-free experience. It includes:

Navigation Sidebar indicators represent the following lesson statuses:

Not StartedIn ProgressCompleted

Interactive Lesson Content

An Academy Lesson can bring your learning to life in many ways. Let's explore them all.

Flip Cards

Flip Cards contain an image or title on one side and can be flipped by clicking the Flip Card option to reveal information on the other side.

Here is a look at an example of Flip Cards:

How Can the Phonebar Help You?

Optimise Patient Communications

It can be maximised to handle phone and video calls, send SMS, and send photo requests and fully integrates with your clinical system to centralise your patient communications and clinical records.

Hotspots

Hotspots are clickable orange dots overlaid on images. Clicking a Hotspot reveals additional details about the corresponding feature within the image.

Here is an example of a Hotspot:

What Is the User Menu?

The User Menu provides a central location for you to access the wider Phonebar features.

Click all circles to explore content

Phonebar User Menu

A CLI  (Calling Line Identification) is the number displayed to the recipient when making outbound calls, this can be allocated on a user basis.

WIthin this option from the Phonebar you can select the specific CLI to be displayed for you and you can also choose to withhold the outbound number, if necessary, via a toggle.

View and manage your User Status

Access the Phonebar Settings.

Access other Surgery Connect Consoles

Interactive Demos

Interactive Demos are fully interactive walkthroughs of Surgery Connect features. They can be accessed by clicking the 'Get Started' option, which pops out the demo for use. Alternatively, you can click the 'Click Here' link below the image.

Interacting with demos is simple, just do so by clicking on the blue dot/text when you are ready to proceed to the next step of the demo.

Upon reaching the end of an Interactive Demo, you can click Replay Content to view it again.

Alternatively, click the orange "x" at the top right of the pop-out to exit the Interactive Demo at any point.

Here is an example of an Interactive Demo:

How To Forward to an External Number

The following will show you how to forward to an external number within the Device Manager:

Click ‘Get Started’ to access the lesson content.

Can’t view the content? Click here

Interactive Videos

Interactive Videos enhance learning with pause points. These are brief text summaries that appear at specific moments in the video. Their time of popup is indicated by navy blue circles on the playback bar.

Here is a look at an example of an Interactive Video:

Moving and Collapsing Your Phonebar

Watch Interactive Video (13 seconds)

Video progress: 0%

You can change the position of your Phonebar by dragging it.

You can also collapse your Phonebar by clicking the button at the end of the Phonebar containing two arrows.

Test Your Knowledge Questions

At various points in a Course, you will be presented with a question to help cement your learning. You can attempt these questions as many times as needed, and while correct answers are required to progress, they won't be factored into your final Course Assessment.

Call-outs and Icons

Academy lessons use a variety of icons and callout boxes to visually highlight key concepts. As you progress through your courses, these symbols will become familiar navigational aids.

Callout Name and ExampleCallout Description
Info:

Used to highlight specific aspects of a feature that were previously mentioned, or to clarify less obvious feature applications.
Funding / PCARP / NHS:

Calls out the direct benefits of Surgery Connect features and how they can help you meet the NHS Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care requirements and ultimately, the associated funding.
Definitions:



When clicked, provides a glossary of terms and their definitions within a popout table.
Help:

Links to external Help Centre pages related to the content of a lesson, providing further learning resources.

Assessments

Assessments can be at the end of individual Lessons, Modules, or the entire Course. The content of each Assessment aligns with the Learning Objectives of the Course or Lesson. 

Upon entering the Assessment, you will be presented with a range of questions. The types of questions that can be asked include:

  • True or False
  • Multiple Choice
  • Gap Fill
  • Drag and Drop Ordering

Our flexible Assessments are designed to help you practice at your own pace:

When an Assessment has been completed, you can expect an instant Assessment grade and feedback on your answers. Assessments can be re-taken as many times as you need without any penalty on your score.

To earn your certificate you will need to receive a minimum grade, this will be highlighted when your score is presented.

Summary and Resources

After completing your Course Assessment you can proceed to the Summary and Resources page. This includes links to further, more detailed information about the various elements covered in each Course. These resources are designed to support you in understanding the product outside of the eLearning platform.

Below the Course rating is a list of Course resources which include more detailed information relating to the topics covered in the Course.

Resources include guides, downloadable content, videos, and demo recaps.

Course Completion Page

Upon completing all Lessons within the Course and meeting the Assessment criteria, you'll be directed to the Course Completion Page, containing the option to view, save or print your certificate as well as explore additional Courses.

Viewing your certificate opens it up in a separate tab, allowing you to download it as a PDF to include within your personal development plan portfolio.

Close this tab to return to your learning.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allows users to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analogue) phone line.

Example Monthly Management ReportDownload
Report Column NameExplanation
Hour/DayThe report can be by hour, or by day
Calls When Patient Callback ActivePatient Callback only becomes active when your parameters are met - this tells you how many calls you received overall when those parameters were met
Calls Handled by Patient CallbackPatient Callbacks requested (in that hour/day)
Callbacks MadePatient Callbacks made (in that hour/day)
Callbacks AcceptedSuccessful callbacks (in that hour/day)
Callbacks RejectedCallback rejected
Callback Attempts ExceededCalllback where the attempts were exceeded - not answered
Queue TimeoutWhere any max queue duration settings are met
Callback ResetCallback cancelled due to closure times
Caller Rang Back InCaller rang back in before callback attempted
Caller Rang Back in - Rejoined QueueCaller rang back in before callback attempted and re-joined the queue
Caller Rang Back in - Hung UpCaller rang back in before callback attempted and hung up (stayed in callback queue)
Caller Rang Back in - CancelledCaller rang back in before callback attempted and cancelled the callback request
Total time in virtual queueTotal time all calls in that hour/day were in the virtual queue
Avg time in virtual queueAverage time each call in that hour/day was in the virtual queue
Total Time in real queueIf someone rings back in and rejoins the “real” queue this would be reflected here.
Avg time in real queueIf someone rings back in and rejoins the “real” queue this would be reflected here.

General Terms

Inbound callAn inbound call is a call made into the surgery on one of your inbound telephone numbers
Outbound callAn outbound call is a call made from the surgery’s service (external calls only)
Queued callA queued call are those that joined a Group queue and started the queueing process to speak to one of your staff
Missed callMissed calls are calls that could have been answered by a staff member because it either targeted a user directly or joined a queue for a distribution group. A call does not have to make it to the front of a queue to count as missed, it purely has to join the queue
Abandoned callAbandoned calls are calls that your staff had no chance of answering as they either did not target a user directly or did not enter a queue for a group of users. Situations where this could be the case are when the caller rings in whilst the practice is closed, or the caller does not respond to a menu and hangs up before making a choice
CLIThe CLI is the number displayed in the call ID to the recipient of that call This may be withheld or a telephone number. It also relates to the callers number when they ring into the Surgery Connect service.
Average call durationThis is an average length of a call - Active time on an answered call - this does not include any queue time
Total call durationThis is the actual length of a call including all of the call flow, queueing, talk or hold time that may have occurred
Maximum call concurrencyThis is how many individual calls are happening at the same time

Group/queue terms

Queued for groupThe total number of calls that queued for that group
Answered from queueThe number of calls in the queue that were answered
% answered from queueThe percentage of calls answered from the queue
Missed from queueThis is the total number of calls that joined the queue but did not get answered
% missed from queueThe percentage of calls missed from the queue
Missed from queue under 10 secondsThese are the calls that joined the queue but the caller hung up before 10 seconds of queueing had occurred. These may not want to be considered when assessing call answering efficiency as there was little chance of your staff answering these calls due to the caller hanging up so quickly
Queue durationThe length of time the caller spent in the queue

Patient Callback terms

Calls when patient callback activeThis is the total number of inbound calls whilst patient callback was offered
Calls handled by patient callbackThis is the number of calls that chose the patient callback option
Callbacks madeThis is the number of callback calls made
Callbacks acceptedThis is the number of callback calls that were answered and accepted by the patients
Callbacks rejectedThis is the number of callback calls that were unanswered or cancelled by the patients
Queue timeoutThis is where a maximum queue time has been set on the service and the time in that queue is reached
Caller rang back inThis is where a caller has selected a callback but has rung in and rejoined the queue before they have received a callback from the surgery
Caller rang back in - rejoined queueThis where a caller has selected a callback but has rung in and rejoined the queue before they have received a callback from the surgery
Caller rang back in - hung upThis is where a caller has called in again and hung up
Caller rang back in - cancelledThis is where a caller has a callback booked but has rung in and cancelled that callback when given the option
Time in virtual queueThis is the amount of time the callers would have spent in the queue if they had not selected a callback