How an NHS Trust was able to deliver critical services during the global pandemic with LoopUp
With over 9,000 dedicated staff caring for patients around the clock, St George’s NHS Foundation Trust is the largest healthcare provider in South West London. The trust serves a population of 1.3 million and their main site, St George’s University Hospital in Tooting, is one of the UK’s principal teaching hospitals.
The need for a remote meeting solution
Dr Peter Green is the Designated Doctor for Child Safeguarding at Wandsworth CCG and the Consultant for Child Safeguarding at St George’s University Hospital. He is responsible for providing specialist advice on all matters relating to children’s safeguarding. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most internal meetings took place in person and the trust did not have a conferencing solution. When social distancing measures were introduced, employees needed to be able to communicate effectively in order to continue delivering critical services while working remotely. “We had a lightbulb moment where we realised, we needed a remote meeting solution to keep our staff connected”, said Peter.
Quick and easy deployment with LoopUp
Peter contacted the LoopUp team to find out more about their product. “After a quick demo, I realised it was the perfect solution for us”, said Peter. “It was easy to use so our staff could get started from day one, and it offered us the security and functionality we needed”.
The deployment of the product was quick and seamless. LoopUp created individual user accounts, sent out activation emails and hosted a live 15-minute introductory session. “My concern was whether we could deploy the product quickly enough, but I needn’t have worried”, said Peter. “LoopUp ensured we were all set up within a matter of hours”.
LoopUp offers support to the NHS
To support the NHS during the COVID-19 crisis, LoopUp offered their remote meeting service to St George’s Trust at no cost. “I received an email from the CEO offering us free use of their service”, said Peter. “I was shocked by the generosity and extremely grateful. At a time when the NHS is under such pressure to perform and keep costs down, it was very helpful for LoopUp to offer us this”.
Easier than making a phone call
Within a few days, people across the trust were using LoopUp for many of their internal meetings. Users were particularly impressed by how easy the tool is to use. “As soon as LoopUp was up and running, people began using it”, said Peter. “It’s a very straightforward product and works so seamlessly – people cottoned on quite quickly. We didn’t need any extra training. Joining a LoopUp call is even easier than making a phone call”.
A more intimate meeting experience
Unlike other web conferencing solutions that carry audio over the internet, LoopUp routes all calls over regular phone lines for increased audio reliability. “The audio is so reliable and if something does go wrong on call it’s usually down to human error”, explained Peter. “There is also something really nice about speaking with others over a telephone. It feels more intimate and democratic. Hierarchy on these calls disappears and people have the freedom to talk frankly, which is very important at a time like this”.
Hosting large meetings with ease
LoopUp also enables St George’s Trust to conduct remote meetings with a large number of participants. “We have daily COVID-19 briefings with 100 to 150 guests on a call”, explained Peter. “We have NHS employees, strategic advisors and local experts all joining the meeting. We just send out the LoopUp meeting link and people never have any trouble getting on the call”. With LoopUp, hosts and guests click the meeting link and are prompted to enter their name and number. LoopUp will then call out to them. There are no downloads or installs required to join a meeting.
LoopUp also has settings specifically for large meetings which makes these calls easier to manage. The Large Meeting Preset ensures all guests join the call with their lines muted, entrance and exit tones are disabled as people join and leave the conference, and screen sharing is enabled so the host can present to guests.
Getting the full picture
LoopUp’s screen share feature allows users to share content in real-time. “The screen share functionality is very useful when we are discussing COVID-19 cases”, explained Peter. “It really helps everyone on the call to get the full picture”. LoopUp allows users to share their screen with one click and content can be viewed on any device.
Staff at St George’s Trust can also record their meetings and download the files from their LoopUp account. “It is really important for us to be able to record meetings as we can then keep a record of everything that was discussed and share the content with other employees that could not attend the meeting”.
Demonstrating the highest standards of security
The security of patient information is of paramount importance to St George’s Trust. “We have to be confident that our meetings are taking place on a secure conferencing platform”, said Peter. “We are often discussing confidential patient records and cases”. With LoopUp, a meeting dashboard provides the host with complete visibility and control on every call. Hosts can see exactly who has joined their meeting and remove unidentified or unwanted guests. LoopUp is certified to ISO/IEC 27001 for information security management and all data is safeguarded with end-to-end encryption.
Supportive and caring customer service
St George’s Trust were given access to training materials, a dedicated account manager and round-the-clock local customer service. “I can’t speak highly enough of the customer support”, explained Peter. “The LoopUp team are always there for us and always supportive. It feels like they genuinely want to help us, and our account manager is always offering us advice to get the most out of the product”.
Delivering critical services during lockdown with LoopUp
Many of the meetings at St George’s NHS Foundation Trust took place in person but when the COVID-19 crisis hit, a remote meeting platform proved necessary. The trust needed to keep staff informed about rapidly changing developments and continue their response to the pandemic, whilst enabling as many staff as possible to work from home. LoopUp offered their remote meeting service to the trust free-of-charge, allowing NHS staff to continue their critical work. Because of its ease of use and reliability, LoopUp was adopted quickly. “We use LoopUp every working day” said Peter. “This pandemic is new to everyone. Each day a new issue arises that needs to be solved and LoopUp helps us to do this. I would recommend LoopUp to anyone working in the NHS. We have been very grateful for their generosity and the help they have given us”.
