He Minister of Health of Navarra, Fernando Domínguez announced this Tuesday in the regional Parliament that all health centers will have a smart switchboard starting October 10. The launch will begin in the centers of Viana, Villatuerta and Allo on the 8th, and in Ancín and Los Arcos on the 10th. With these five centers, the entire Primary Care network of the Navarrese Health Service-Osasunbidea will be completed.
In a parliamentary appearance at the request of UPN to address the Chamber of Comptos report on accessibility to Primary Care 2018-2023, the counselor explained that “the collapse suffered by telephone lines especially from 8 to 10 in the morning “It was something that we not only knew in Health because of the complaints and the discomfort that the citizens and our administrators expressed to us, but also because the company that manages the telephone lines warned that their network was completely collapsing.”
These switchboards allow users to choose to have the center’s own staff call them back automatically without having to call more than once.
The smart switchboard, whose pilot project began in May in some centers in the Pamplona area, allows users to choose, if the line is busy when calling the center, by dialing the number 8, which the center’s own staff will call them back automatically without having to call more than once.
This tool, which has been implemented gradually since June in centers in the health area of Pamplona, Tudela and Estella-Lizarrais one of the measures announced by the Navarrese Health Service-Osasunbidea in spring to improve telephone accessibility to health centers. After the first months since its implementation, the first partial evaluation indicates that an improvement has been achieved in telephone accessibility, help for the daily work of Health admission staff and an improvement in the perception and attention of citizens, according to highlighted by the provincial government. The counselor explained that “the reality is that it has been a measure that is giving great results, it is improving accessibility, the perception of citizens and the work of our administrative staff.”
The operating system is that if a person calls their health center for any procedure, and the line is busy, a voice recording will indicate the option to dial number 8 to request automatic redial by the center. This call remains in a waiting queue, in the same position as if the user were still on the phone, and once the line is freed, the health center staff will return the call in order. They are made 3 attempts every 5 minutes to contact the patient; If you do not respond to any of the three, the user must call the center again.
103,000 CALLS AVOIDED IN THREE MONTHS
This automatic redial system was installed as pilot test in some centers in the Pamplona area where greater saturation of telephone lines had been detected, in particular, first thing in the morning, between 8 and 10 a.m.
In the Pamplona area, since the smart switchboard was installed, from 8 to 10 hours, 20,065 automatic redialsand 19,539 have been successfully returned, that is, 97.4%. From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., they have been carried out 21,253 redials and 94.4% have been successfully returned. The regional Government has indicated that two aspects must be considered in these data. The first, that no public communication has been made about this system until now and, the second, that the implementation has been gradualand the number of callbacks has been gradually increasing as well.
With the pilot project in the Pamplona area, more than 103,000 calls have been avoided since it began to be implemented in the centers
Taking as reference the study presented by the Chamber of Comptos on Accessibility to Primary Care 2018-2023in which they indicated that on average a person called the center five times from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2.3 times from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., in the first part of the morning they have been avoided 77,000 calls and 10 to 12 hours more 26,000 calls. In total, with the pilot project in the Pamplona area, more than 103,000 calls since it began to be implemented in the centers.
The Navarrese Health Service-Osasunbidea considers this option to improve accessibility to Primary as “very positive” and, therefore, it has been extended to the rest of the community’s health centers. Specifically, professionals from the centers’ admission services have reported improvements in care, in their daily work and better perception by citizens, decreasing the level of aggressiveness and conflict in some centers.
ConSalud’s content is prepared by journalists specialized in health and endorsed by a committee of top-level experts. However, we recommend that the reader consult any health-related questions with a healthcare professional.