MINI CASE STUDY: Rowan Tree Surgery

PRACTICE: Rowan Tree Surgery
COUNTY: Kent

Rowan Tree Surgery is part of the Clanricarde Medical Group. Located in the southern part of Tunbridge Wells, it delivers medical care to 14,921 registered patients.

• The surgery is staffed with doctors, nurses and a variety of other healthcare professionals, who are dedicated to offering a professional service to each visitor.

• The old equipment that was being used within the surgery was often unreliable and generally slow
• The printer would frequently fail to respond to computer print requests, meaning that staff had to look up documents that failed to print and attempt to print them again, thus wasting employee and patient time
• Any product performance issues required involvement of the IT department and caused interruption to the smooth operation of the surgery
• The laser printer also required a heat-up time, which delayed printing the first job
• Consumables had to be regularly replaced, running up a large bill.

• The surgery has trialled an Epson WF-M5299 printer in the reception
• The staff have been impressed by the print quality and the speed of the printer. This has enabled the staff to produce patient prescriptions and notes far more quickly
• The surgery also found the printer more reliable and easier to use compared to the previous set-up
• In terms of product performance, only minor interventions have been occasionally required and have been easily and quickly resolved by the staff with the printer’s clear on-screen guidance, eliminating the need for IT involvement
• Due to the huge, 40,000-page-capacity cartridge, no change of consumables has been required in the last four months – and the printers will run for many more months without new cartridges
• The printer has no drum, meaning fewer consumables – thus reducing printer issues and downtime; interruption to clinical staff; and staff frustration.

Denise Netherton, Practice Manager, Rowan Tree Surgery: “From the start, when the Epson team came to the surgery to install the WFWF-M5229, we've been delighted with how smoothly the printer has run and how it has helped make the surgery's daily admin operations more efficient. All the frustrations we were having before – when you thought you've printed something, only to find out that the printer has gone to sleep and hasn't done its job, are now gone. It has helped to improve our productivity and, most importantly, neither our staff nor our patients feel like their time is being wasted because of unreliable equipment.”