NHS Lothian, along with a number of health boards across southeast Scotland, has turned to Polycom’s HD video solutions to improve their overall health services internally. During the last 18 months, the partnership between NHS Lothian and Polycom has enabled NHS Lothian to take advantage of unified communications built around Polycom’s HD video collaboration solutions. The organization claims to have benefited from improved staff efficiencies and improve delivery of patient health services while also benefiting from increased cost savings.
In a release, Iain Robertson, head of IT infrastructure and operations at NHS Lothian, said, "We have a number of partnerships with technology organizations, and it is important that these are two-way relationships. Not only does Polycom have the right technical solutions, it has an incredibly experienced healthcare team offering a complete service solution. We made the right decision in choosing Polycom, and the results speak for themselves. We have kept all of our original meeting rooms and we now have the ability to connect to remote teams. We are more connected than ever, with the ability to use voice, video, unified communications, and telepresence all in one call.”
NHS Lothian said it’s decision to choose Polycom was based on the quality of its video conferencing solutions and its extensive experience within the healthcare industry.
Andrew Graley, director of healthcare, Polycom EMEA, said, "NHS Lothian is realizing the full benefits of truly unified communications built around HD video collaboration. Residents in Lothian and across the South East of Scotland can now communicate with healthcare professionals like never before – encouraging a self-service approach to health. Together with the cost and environmental savings from video collaboration, NHS Lothian is on to a winning formula."
Polycom’s videoconferencing systems will help NHS Lothian host case meetings in the Regional Cancer Centre, which will be attended by remotely located clinicians and make it possible for patients to consult with experts in Edinburgh in case they are unable to travel. Patients also have the option of connecting with the medical staff via videoconferencing for follow-ups post their initial treatment or visit to the medical center.
Lothian will also be able to conduct physiotherapy classes via video for patients who cannot travel to Edinburgh for a class. The videoconferencing solutions will effectively enhance communication and collaboration between the executive team at NHS Lothian and the local authorities for information sharing and will make it easy to transfer expert knowledge across Lothian’s framework.
Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
