How We Transformed Patient Access and Clinical Workflow Using SystmConnect
A first-hand account from Adrian Headley, IT Lead, Beccles Medical Centre – Suffolk
Practice Background
Our practice serves around 20,000 patients and relies on a team of roughly 40 clinicians and administrative staff to manage online consultations and digital triage. For 3 years, the practice used a third-party web-based application for patient contact and online triage.
Challenges with the Previous System
While the system offered basic functionality, it became a major source of frustration for patients and staff alike. Patients repeatedly struggled with account creation and login, verification, and the bland questions that the AI asked, always being the same few questions no matter what the problem was. On the local community Facebook page there was always complaints about the platform that appeared nearly every month.
Internally, the system made it so all submissions landed in a single shared pool, regardless of the type request coming in. Reassigning or “unmatching” forms was difficult and often it required deleting the whole form or waiting days for external support. Integration with our clinical system (SystmOne) depended on a separate application that would occasionally fail or disconnect, meaning forms would not come through and ‘catch all’ emails would flood the mailbox which would then need to be scanned into the record.
Decision to Change
Recognising these problems, the practice partners, managers, and IT (me) decided to explore alternative options for a new system. The motivation came from patient feedback, but also from the need for a more stable, efficient, and user-friendly solution.
Choosing SystmConnect
As we already used SystmOne for clinical records, out of many options, switching to SystmConnect offered a promising and cost-effective option. SystmConnect provided a native, integrated triage solution that removed the need for third-party tools, eliminated account-based barriers for patients, and supported tailored digital workflows much better than others on the market.
Implementation and Build
I led the full implementation as IT Officer. Over the course of less than a week, thanks to SystmConnect’s clear documentation and straightforward setup, I configured the system and created teams, routing rules, and designed and built more than 60 custom questionnaires which for many of these contain set conditional logic and mandatory fields, auto-coding, embedded patient-friendly resources, and reworked our website to guide patients into the new access pathways.
Enhanced Questionnaires and Data Quality
“SystmConnect has transformed our workflows by enabling structured, dynamic questionnaires that generate reliable, clinically useful data from the outset, automatically routing requests to the correct team with urgent prioritisation, and integrating seamlessly with SystmOne so forms attach directly to patient records with auto-coding – reducing delays, cutting duplication, improving turnaround times, and enhancing clinical safety.”
The new questionnaires ranged from clinical triage forms and health-problem reports to annual reviews, long-term condition monitoring, administrative requests, and follow-ups. Compared with the former system’s rigid, limited forms, essentially basic templates with editable text, SystmConnect offered a rich variety of question types. Multiple-choice, coded numeric input, mandatory fields, and dynamic branching logic are all exactly what practices need to make the most out of their forms with high standards of patient care and efficiency. Having these produced much more reliable, structured, and clinically useful data from the get-go, reducing the need for follow-up clarification.
Automated Routing and Workflow Improvements
Routing logic has transformed how we handle patient requests. Each form now goes immediately to the correct team, for example: clinical triage, nursing, admin, reception or specialised care pools, with request types that we deem as urgent automatically prioritised and pushed to the right place. This removes the long delays and manual sorting that previously plagued the system, dramatically improving turnaround times and enhancing clinical safety.
Integration with SystmOne
From a data and workflow perspective, the integration with SystmOne has been crucial. Forms attach directly to patient records, codes are applied automatically using the codes we specify from what a patient answers, and clinicians comment positively on how clean, structured and usable the information is. More efficient triage and the ability to issue appointment-invite links directly from the request panel has reduced duplicative admin work and cut down on outbound calls, letting patients’ self-book their appointments at convenient times.
Measurable Results
“By embedding total triage within SystmOne, requests are automatically coded and routed to the right team, significantly reducing triage time. Since going live, patient satisfaction has also risen sharply, evidenced by increasingly positive online patient reviews.”
The results speak for themselves. We have seen a marked reduction in patient complaints about online access and the negative feedback about the system has all but vanished. Our Friends & Family Test scores relating to “contact with the practice” have risen sharply, and Google reviews have shifted heavily toward 4- and 5-star ratings each time, pushing up our overall Google review by over 1 star to-date.
Patients frequently describe the new system as “much easier to use”, “straightforward”, “quick” and “user-friendly.” On the staff side, triage time per form has dropped from around five minutes to about three minutes. More importantly, complex cases go immediately to the right team, rather than languishing in a backlog. The improved data structure and automated routing have reduced the risk of error (for example, attaching information to the wrong patient) and improved overall safety.
Overall Impact
Switching to SystmConnect has fundamentally changed how we deliver digital care at the practice. The old third-party platform created frustration, inefficiency and risk. SystmConnect offers a seamless, patient-centred front door which is efficient, secure, flexible, and integrated directly with our SystmOne records. It has improved the experience for patients, reduced workload for staff, and strengthened the overall quality and safety of care.
We believe our experience represents a compelling example of how SystmConnect can transform patient access and digital triage within general practice, and we hope other practices will consider adopting a similar approach.