Recording of telephone calls

The Referral and Booking Service (RBS) have recently implemented the recording of incoming telephone calls from patients into the service. 

Why have we implemented this service?

It is important that the Trust provides quality information to patients on their referral or appointment and that customer service standards are adhered to.  This includes ensuring that key information is given to the patient as part of the telephone call which may include a summary of how the patient's referral will now be processed, indicative waiting times for the particular service the patient is accessing and options available to the patient such as which hospital they would like to attend.

It is also important that patient enquiries and complaints are dealt with appropriately and the call recording provides an independent record of the discussion that took place.

Finally, we wish to ensure that staff are appropriately trained for their role within the Trust which includes ensuring that staff are exposed to the full range of calls which they can be expected to take and how to answer the call appropriately and to a consistent standard.

How will we use this information?

Recordings of telephone calls will only be available to specific members of the RBS team and may be accessed as part of a customer complaint, for quality assurance or where a telephone call has specifically been flagged by a member of the team as being appropriate for training.

As part of the training of new and existing members of staff, RBS attempt to recreate an accurate simulation of the types of telephone call that the member of staff is expected to take.  In this instance, a transcript of the telephone call would be created which would contain no patient identifiable or sensitive information.  This transcript would then form part of a role play between the trainer and trainee.

How long will you retain this information?

Recordings of telephone calls are stored for 40 days after which they are automatically deleted by the call management system.