Medical Call Center News

June/July 2010

Amcom Software Solutions Now Rated “Avaya Compliant”

Amcom Software, a provider of mission-critical communications solutions, announced that its contact center applications are compliant with Avaya Aura™ Application Enablement Services (AES).  Avaya is a leader in enterprise communications systems.

The Amcom contact center applications, a foundational element for its unified communications solutions, help organizations create safer and more efficient environments through fast, intelligent information sharing.  The applications now are compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya Aura AES 5.2.

“Amcom is committed to ensuring seamless integration with Avaya solutions so we can continue to be a single source for customers’ end-to-end unified communications requirements,” said Chris Heim, CEO of Amcom Software.  “The fact that Avaya’s innovative solutions are based on open, standards-based platforms enables our customers to incorporate new technologies alongside their Amcom solutions easily and cost-effectively.  This helps them create forward-thinking communications infrastructures based on fast, accurate data exchange.”

Amcom Software is a member of the Avaya DevConnect program, an initiative to develop, market, and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network.

Clinical Solutions Focuses on North America Expansion with New Appointment

Clinical Solutions, a clinical decision support provider, appointed Sue Hawkins as senior sales executive for North America.  The move comes at a time when Clinical Solutions continues to roll out its technology and content in North America to deliver clinical information and decision support across a number of channels.

The technology supports a range of scenarios from urgent face-to-face care, telephone triage, physician/service referral, class scheduling, marketing awareness, outbound campaigns, and e-care situations.  Clinical Solutions’ combination of clinical content, software applications, and managed IT infrastructure provides a one-stop-shop to organizations, whatever their size and need.

Sue Hawkins joins Clinical Solutions from McKesson Corporation where she was sales director.  Sue has enjoyed a career spanning more than 22 years in which she has held a wide variety of roles in the areas of sales, account management, sales leadership, and general management.

Xavier Flinois, CEO at Clinical Solutions, comments, “Sue’s appointment is a very timely addition to our team as we accelerate the development of our product portfolio and expansion in North America.  Sue's industry knowledge, relationships, and sales experience will be a key asset to Clinical Solutions."

1Call Introduces Infinity IS Web Scripts

1Call announced Infinity IS Web scripts, which allows hospitals to Web-enable their Infinity IS scripts, providing easier access for operators, physicians, mobile workers, and even customers, if desired.

Using Infinity IS Web scripts, a data collection script is presented via a Web browser.  Specific scripts can be created for the call center calls, for departments, or for public Web access.  Infinity IS Web scripts are ideal for data collection applications. 

For public scripts, the viewer could start entering information in a script and then request operator assistance.  The operator then continues the script where the caller stopped.  The Web-based Infinity IS message scripts can also look up existing information, saving time and helping ensure accuracy.  In addition, message scripts can access Infinity IS Web on-call and directory messaging. 

Amtelco President Tom Curtin said, “Infinity IS Web scripts present tremendous new opportunities to offer data collection scripts throughout the hospital that branch and look up data automatically through integrated HL7 messaging.  This lets hospitals use their own creativity and make their own interface.  Web-accessible scripts offer more convenience for both medical staff and for customers.”

Contact 1Call at 800-225-6035 or info@1call.com. 

OBSI Conducts Healthcare Contact Center Best Practices Survey

Optimal Business Solutions, Inc., (OBSI) is conducting a survey to identify best practices for appointment setting in healthcare facilities worldwide.  The survey will explore metrics, tools, and processes that drive patient satisfaction, contact center efficiency, and effectiveness. 

The survey’s results will provide readers an opportunity to benchmark their operations with best practices of their industry colleagues.  Results will be summarized in the August/September issues of AnswerStat magazine and Medical Call Center News.  A full report will be provided free to survey participants.

The survey should take about five minutes to complete and will remain open through June 30, 2010.  To participate, please go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/OBSIsurvey1.

OBSI is a New York based consulting firm that helps businesses improve profitability and customer satisfaction by making it easier for their customers to do business with them.  OBSI tailors customer contact solutions by blending industry-specific best practices with its learnings from a broad array of other industries.

For more information, contact Robert Borders at rborders@optimal-business.com or 888-321-6274.

OnviSource Offers Operations Continuity Software Products

OnviSource announced the availability of new OnviCenter products offering operations continuity capabilities for various other products in the suite of OnviCenter workforce optimization and automation.  OnviCenter operations continuity products include Ensura and Informa, which reduce recoveries and customers’ support efforts in maintaining their OnviCenter products. 

Ensura offers system redundancy, backup, and recovery.  Informa interworks with Ensura and other OnviCenter products and provides monitoring of various functionalities, analysis of critical operational indicators, and automatic notifications when indicators reach user-defined thresholds and management reports.  As an example, Informa can automatically monitor, analyze, and perform reconciliations related to recorded calls between contact centers’ PBX or other telecom devices, and OnviCenter internal products (both primary and secondary platforms, if needed), to assure the integrity and consistency of the entire operation.  Ensura and Informa can be purchased together or independently.

Additionally, OnviSource offers an operations control center, to which Informa’s notifications can be automatically routed to for use by OnviSource service engineers.

Reference Book Offers Correct Spelling for More Than 10,000 Drug Names

Drug Speller 2010, edited by Anissa R. Nierenberger, aims to offer the correct spelling for more than 10,000 commonly used drugs, including prescription, brand name, generic, experimental, and discontinued pharmaceuticals.

According to Nierenberger, pharmaceutical product names are often misspelled in professional and legal documents.  As a result, Nierenberger compiled more than 10,000 commonly used drugs into one volume to act as a desk reference.  The latest installment of an ongoing annual series, the book organizes drug names in alphabetical order for convenient research.  Information is also categorized into 36 medical specialties, including cardiology, fertility, and diabetes.

“This is the only book that provides spellings for all drugs in one easy-to-use resource,” said Nierenberger.  “It’s designed for reporters, nurses, libraries, hospitals, government agencies, law firms, insurance companies, law enforcement agencies, or anyone else in need of accurate information about a wide variety of medications.”

The book lists popularly prescribed medications, lesser-known drugs, and features typographical representation of drug names as intended by their manufacturers, including instances of mixing of upper and lower case letters and the insertion of hyphens.

Amcom Expands Hospital Smartphone Messaging with Android Support

Amcom Software’s Amcom Mobile Connect now offers smartphone messaging for the Android.  This enables staff members at technology-driven hospitals to receive all messages on a single smartphone, negating the need to carry multiple devices.  The solution provides a full audit trail of activities, including date and time stamps for messages sent, received, and acknowledged.  The result is improved patient care and staff efficiency through a highly streamlined unified communications process in which it’s clear how to reach the right staff members at all times.

With smartphones as the basis for their pager replacement strategy, healthcare organizations are able to tap devices already in widespread use to simplify the process of contacting highly mobile staff.  This gives hospitals the flexibility to incorporate smartphones without worrying about which telecom carrier provides service.  This Amcom solution is already in place at several hospitals using BlackBerry smartphones. 

Hospital operators and others can use Amcom Mobile Connect to deploy critical messages to staff members through a variety of inputs, including a simple Web portal.  In addition to this stand-alone deployment option, the solution also integrates seamlessly with Amcom’s unified communications suite. 

For more information, call 800-852-8935.

OnviSource Offers “Ecosystem of Solutions”

OnviSource announced the formation of an “ecosystem of solutions” to contact centers and enterprises consisting of a suite of workforce optimization and automation software products, customer lifecycle assistance services beyond conventional customer support, and justifiable, compliant and result-oriented business process outsourcing (BPO) services. 

OnviSource strongly believes that in today’s economy the needs of contact centers go beyond workforce optimization and automation technologies.  They require integrated products and services solutions that can support the lifecycle of their endeavor in assessing, acquiring, funding, deploying, and operating contact center workforce optimization and automation applications. 

Starting with a suite of workforce optimization products and applications, OnviSource’s progressive strategy includes free trials, financing, free telecom consulting, and operations continuity services to assure best use of the contact center products, IT services, free training, and webinars.  OnviSource’s ecosystem of solutions was completed through offering outsourcing options in sales lead generation, telesales, and entire inbound-outbound call center services, including back-office management.  In order to offer a broad range of quality services, OnviSource has formed partnerships with service providers in financing, telecom consulting, and IT services. 

New iPhone^® Apps from 1Call

1Call announced two new iPhone apps available for download on the Apple^® iTunes^® store.  These apps are compatible with iPhone, iPod touch^®, and Apple’s new iPad™.  They are:

miOncall: an essential mobile tool for physicians and staff to view and manage their Infinity IS Web-based on-call schedules

miDash: allows supervisors to view Infinity IS dashboard gauges and charts to monitor Infinity system activity from virtually anywhere

Amtelco President Tom Curtin said, “These iPhone apps provide not only our customers, but also their physicians and staff with the convenience of accessing vital information from wherever they need it.”

For more information, contact 1Call at 800-225-6035 or info@1call.com.