Medicus Integrated Phonebar - The Basics

The Phonebar is a small but powerful desktop app that allows access for all telephony functionality to be controlled from the PC screen

This guide will take you through the basics of the Phonebar; starting up, moving, settings, selecting your call device, call functions including directory and patient contact

Your Phonebar should start automatically when you switch on your PC or laptop

If your Phonebar does not appear, you can click on the Phonebar shortcut on your Desktop or type Phonebar in the Windows search box

You must either be logged in to your clinical system or Surgery Connect to make and receive calls

Click on the phone dialler icon to expand the Phonebar and click on the arrows to collapse it

You can also drag the Phonebar from side to side using your mouse

The Device Manager is where you select which device you wish to use to make and receive calls. To open the Device Manager window, click on the current device icon

Your current device will be highlighted in green

To change your device, hover over the selection in the list. As you hover over each device they will turn blue - click your preferred device to select it

To select a deskphone, click into the Select Deskphone box and click the one you wish to log in to. If you use the same deskphone or a selection of deskphones on a regular basis, you can favourite them by clicking on the blue star. These will then appear in your Device Manager list

Clicking on the person icon next to a device indicates that you have chosen to automatically log into that device when you activate the Phonebar

Your device options are:

Softphone

Mobile

Deskphone

If you choose to use our personal mobile device your colleagues and patients will not know which device you are using to make and receive calls and cannot see your personal number in the call ID

By clicking the Settings cog in the Device Manager window you can set your preferences for when you login and out

The Auto Login/Logout settings are; Automatic, Requires confirmation or Do nothing
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The Phonebar dialler is where you manually enter or paste copied telephone numbers you wish to dial. Once a valid number is entered, the call icons will turn green. To make a call, click the telephone icon

If the number input is a valid mobile number you will also be given the option to send an SMS or video call link to that number

To send an SMS, click the Message icon. The SMS Window will open

Type the SMS you wish to send in the Message Body box, or select a pre-defined SMS Template in the Add Template box

Once you're happy with the content of the message, click Send SMS. You will then see a screen confirming the SMS has been sent

To send a video call to a number, click the Video icon. A meeting invite SMS will be sent to the patient, and the video call window will automatically open

Click Join Meeting to start the video call

The in-call window will then appear. Once in the meeting, you can copy the invite link if you need to invite additional participants to the video call

The Phonebar allows access for all telephony functionality to be controlled from the PC screen

Depending on your selected call device, the following options are possible

Softphone/Phonebar - full call controls

Call Controls when logged into a deskphone

Call Controls when using a mobile

When an inbound call is received, the inbound call popup is displayed on your Phonebar. This shows:

When Medicus is open, a popup is displayed in the top right hand corner. This shows you the patient(s) associated with the number

Click on the patient to open their record in Medicus

When accessing a patient's record within Medicus, you can click on their contact number to start a call directly from the Phonebar without needing to manually enter their details

To do this, open the desired patient record and click on the contact number you wish to call. A popup will open asking you to confirm - click Yes, dial to start the call

Silent Monitoring allows you to listen in on an active call. This can be used for training, medical students, additional input when required or just to listen to known difficult callers

How you silent monitor calls will be dependant on your User Permissions. Supervisors will be able to Silent Monitor any active call without notifying either participant, but Standard Users will need to be invited before they can do this

Clicking on the Contacts icon on the Phonebar accesses both your Colleagues and Directory contacts

Colleagues

This tab displays all of the internal colleagues within your organisation. These can be displayed either by their Group or in alphabetical order. To change the display settings for your Colleagues, access the Phonebar Settings and select Contacts. From here, you can toggle View Colleague Contacts in Groups to be on or off

Within the Colleagues tab, a User's availability to take calls is indicated by a coloured status dot:

Green - Available

Amber - Direct Calls Only

Red - Do Not Disturb

Purple - Outbound Calls

Users that are not logged in will be greyed out and at the bottom of the Colleagues list - you will not be able to call these individuals. If a contact is currently on an active call, this will be indicated by the following icon

To make a call to a contact, click the blue call icon

Directory

The Directory tab displays all external contacts. These are available to everyone within your organisation - there is no personal call list

Favourites can instead be selected at a User level, to allow you to set your commonly called contacts to be displayed at the top of the Directory list. To select or deselect a favourite contact, click the Star icon next to the contact. Once favourited, the star will change to blue. Deselecting this contact will turn it back to white

These contacts can be added individually or in bulk via the Configuration Console. From here, you can also search, edit and delete external numbers already in your Directory
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The Communications Window acts as a inbox for communications, including Call History and Voicemail. This area is either accessed via the User Menu, or via the icon on the Phonebar (the icon displayed in the Phonebar can be turned On/Off via Phonebar Settings). New items within the Communications Window are indicated by an orange notification dot on the Phonebar icon, the User Menu and the desktop Phonebar icon
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Click on your Call History icon or open the Calls tab within the Communications Window to see your recent calls

Calls are displayed in the item list on the left hand side of this tab. The following call information is displayed both in the item list and at the top of the right hand side of the tab once an item is selected:

Once selected the following information will also be displayed on the right hand side, along with the option to listen to the call recording if applicable:

You can also Search your Call History or Filter by call type and date in order to easily locate specific calls

When a call is listed from a number that hasn't been saved as a contact in the Central Directory, the Add to Directory icon is displayed, allowing you to create a new contact with this number saved

Voicemails can be accessed via the Phonebar in the Communications Window Voicemail tab. This area is split into two tabs; User and Group voicemails. New voicemails are indicated by an orange notification dot

The Search box allows you to search for Voicemails by Name, Number and group Voicemail box (if on Group view)

Selecting a message highlights it in blue, and displays the following information on the right hand display:

A media player is also displayed which allows you to pause and resume the message and adjust the volume levels

The option to Delete and Save individual voicemails is also displayed on the right. Saved Voicemails are indicated by the Saved icon to the right of the message

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Your User Status is displayed on the Phonebar and is used to determine which, if any, calls you will receive. Each status has a different colour

Your User Status is also displayed to your colleagues via the Directory so they can see whether you are available to contact

To manage access the User Status and Group Management menu, click on your User Status on the Phonebar

Click on the User Status you require set it for your User. A tick is displayed to your active Status

Click the Groups listed under Group Management to choose which ones you receive calls for. A blue tick is displayed next to the ones you are "stepped into". To no longer receive calls for a group, simply click it again to step out. The blue tick will disappear

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Surgery Intellect, powered by TORTUS, is a voice-enabled AI assistant that uses ambient voice technology (AVT) to listen, transcribe and code consultations in real time via the Phonebar

It reduces the cognitive load for GPs and provides accurate, secure documentation. For both face-to-face appointments and telephone consultations, Surgery Intellect captures and codes Patient interactions so nothing is missed and no time is wasted

The Phonebar Service Control Window allows you to view current call statistics and manage your Calendars

The Stat Boxes tab allows you to monitor live call statistics and view your favourite call groups and their availability

The Calendars Tab provides an overview of all active Calendars. From here, Users with Supervisor access can manually override these if required

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Click on your initials on the right of the Phonebar to open the User Menu

You can select the CLI (Calling Line Identification), which is the number the recipient of the call sees when you're making an outbound call

You can also choose to withhold the outbound number, if necessary, via a toggle. When this is set to on, the recipient will not see any number at all

By accessing the Settings Window you can change the basic settings and application preferences to best suit your needs

Currently filing to the Patient Record is not possible with Medicus Integration. The toggles for these settings are therefore not accessible

The User Preferences area is where you choose what happens when you log in and log out of your clinical system

Auto Login:

Auto Logout

Selecting Audio & Video allows you to choose the equipment you want to use for calls

Microphone

Next to Microphone is a drop-down menu of the audio options e.g. integrated speakers and microphone or headset microphone. Select the device you wish to use

Secondary Ringer Output

By selecting a secondary ringer option you will hear your Phonebar ringer through an alternative speaker, meaning you will still be made aware of inbound calls if you are not wearing your headset or if you miss the inbound call on your screen

Select the alternative output by clicking on the dropdown menu and selecting the speaker of your choice

Video

The Video dropdown allows you to select the camera you wish to use. If there is only one option available to you, this will be your default video device

To view your colleague contacts via their group, switch the toggle to On

When the toggle is set to Off, your colleague contacts will display by their availability

The Phonebar settings menu allows you to select which icons you display on your Phonebar and which appear in the User Menu via a toggle, to suit your daily tasks

By only selecting the icons you use most often, you can reduce the size of your Phonebar

You can choose to have the icons displayed on your Phonebar and also in the menu list by selecting Always display icons in the user menu

Here you can view your keyboard shortcuts, which can be turned off if not required

The Stats Boxes settings allow you to configure your stats box display to best suit your needs

You can choose to have the Stats Box window launched upon setup by toggling the first option to On

To choose with Stats Boxes are displayed in the window, toggle the options to On / Off depending on our preference

Click About to view which version you are on. You can check to see if this is the latest version by clicking Check for Updates

You can also click Release Notes to see details of what was included in the most recent update

You can access your other Surgery Connect Consoles directly from the Phonebar. Click on your User initials and then select Consoles to open the Console Menu You can then select the Console you wish to open in a new window

Clicking on Help opens our online Help Centre where you will find all our user guides

If you can not identify why your Phonebar isn't working as you would expect, you can send our Support Team a diagnostics report

Press Ctrl + Alt + D on your keyboard to open a diagnostics window

Click About in the menu to view which version you are on. You can check to see if this is the latest version by clicking Check for Updates

You can also click Release Notes to see details of what was included in the most recent update

To minimise your Phonebar either click the Surgery Connect icon in the taskbar or click Minimise from the User Menu

Click on the icon again to restore the Phonebar

To close the Phonebar select Exit Phonebar from the menu. This will change your status to Logged Out and will close the Phonebar so it is no longer visible on your screen

In the event that you need to use your Phonebar without clinical integration you can seamlessly switch to Phonebar only mode allowing you to use telephony functionality

To switch modes, right click on the Surgery Connect icon in your application tray, select Switch Mode and select Phonebar only