NHS WiFi: A straightforward procedure with Purple

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In 2015, Jeremy Hunt declared that all NHS buildings across England would be provided with free WiFi in a bid to improve services and reduce costs. Fast forward two years and it looks like this will soon come to fruition as all GP practices will have free WiFi for patients, visitors and staff by the end of this year. Hospitals and secondary care units will follow suit in phase two of the roll out, which officially commences in 2018. So, with time ticking and deadlines imminent, many Local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are seeking a WiFi solution that is simple to integrate, fully compliant with the NHS Digital guidelines and is capable of capturing data for mandatory usage reports.

Luckily, Purple ticks all of those boxes and makes becoming WiFi ready a simplistic transition. We’ve taken strategic steps to ensure our platform adheres to NHS Digital guidelines and is simple for CCGs to install. It offers high speed connectivity, multiple networks, ready-made WiFi access and post authentication templates featuring compliant content and branding, secure login, content filtering and a range of reports. So CCGs and NHS sites don’t need to worry about security and privacy, don’t have to waste time compiling report statistics and don’t need to design compliant artwork for login journeys.

And that’s not all, NHS sites get access to a whole host of benefits not offered by most mainstream WiFi providers. As the market leader for WiFi analytics, we’re able to supply hospitals, doctor’s surgeries, dentists and other NHS healthcare providers with unparalleled insights about who is on site, how long people dwell, how staff and patients move and where overcrowding occurs. This data will not only help CCGs to improve the way they interact and communicate with patients, but could also influence operational efficiency, cost effectiveness and the allocation of staff and equipment.

So, what are the additional benefits of Purple for NHS locations?

Communications & Real-time alerts: The Purple portal captures detailed data about every individual that accesses the NHS WiFi network, including their name, age, gender, where they’re from and how often they visit. This data can then be utilised to develop and distribute segmented emails and SMS campaigns to different audiences. Whether it’s reminding elderly patients to get their flu jabs, sending teenagers an e-shot about the dangers of not wearing sun protection during the school holidays or informing people from a certain location about the new GP surgery that’s opened nearby, Purple can significantly improve patient engagement.

Feedback: Patient feedback is important and can prove crucial when making changes to the way individual NHS sites operate. With Purple, micro surveys can be used to ask visitors within a specified time frame about how their experience was and if they have any recommendations on ways to improve. Due to the structured follow-up process it makes visitors feel like their opinions are valued and it can also have a much better response rate in comparison to lengthy patient surveys.

Optimisation: With Purple’s location services, NHS sites can track how patients, visitors and staff move around or where assets reside. This knowledge can then be used to evidence the need for improvements and to optimise staffing, site layout, on-site signage and facilities. Communications can also be sent out according to a person’s location, for example if an NHS walk in centre wanted to alert people about the current waiting time to be seen by a doctor then this could be sent to everyone in the waiting area, saving people having to constantly ask at reception.

There is a wide array of benefits for this sector and our WiFi and analytics solution has already been deployed by some of the largest NHS sites across the country. Patients and staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn have openly praised Purple’s WiFi network and the statistics captured in the portal, with almost 80,000 people accessing the network since August 2016.
Still not sure? Don’t worry, why not take a trial run, see if there’s any truth behind the words. Sign up to our 14 day trial of Purple’s enhanced licence today.

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