Magdalen had a problem that many practices share: the 8am rush
Magdalen Medical Practice in Norwich serves 14,500+ patients. On a typical Monday the team answered 500 to 600 calls, and the queue hit its 50-call cap by 8:01. All urgent appointments were gone by 8:20.
“By one minute past eight, the call queue was at 50. We'd all be answering calls continuously and it would just still be at 50, because patients kept joining. We were booking as quickly as we could, we couldn't triage appropriately. As soon as all the appointments were gone, that was it.”
Molly Shreeve, Reception Manager —
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Then Magdalen went live with Andi, our AI Receptionist
Andi is an AI receptionist that always answers the phone, and never leaves patients waiting on hold. Andi speaks to patients, collects details about their requests, and passes them onto your team.
Magdalen decided to launch Andi, and the impact was instant.
399 patient requests were received on day 1, and over half were handled by Andi
~18 hours of phone time were recovered on day one alone, across the team (5000 hours in a month)
96.6% of urgent requests are seen on the same day
Zero locums since go-live
“In our first month of having Andi, the reception team answered 5,000 less calls. When we looked at the Andi stats, we had 5,000 forms coming in. It wasn't because patients weren't contacting us. They just used the new system.”
Tracey Clarke, Practice Manager —
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More than that, it has led to a wider transformation
The whole team benefits: Magdalen has had the first month with no staff sickness in 3 years. Reception has stopped feeling like a call centre, and staffing is now flexible
Patient access is improved: Urgent same-day slots are still available at 2pm, and GPs get to see their whole list
Patient safety remains #1: Anima's structured questions catch what booking calls may not, in one case flagging a case that led to an ambulance call
New capacity = new practice income: 1 GP session has been freed every week, and Magdalen is now a Women's Health Hub for 6 additional PCNs.
“It's a lot more comprehensive in terms of asking red flag questions, more so than a receptionist might be. It's very good at identifying what the problem is and asking specific red flag questions about that issue.”
Dr Patel, GP Partner —
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