1Call: Helping Healthcare Organizations Effectively Manage Day-to-Day and Crisis Communications

October/November 2010

For over 30 years, Amtelco has been providing innovative communication solutions to call centers around the world.  In 1997, the 1Call Division was formed to offer enterprise-wide communication solutions designed specifically for healthcare organizations.  1Call is dedicated to serving the unique call center and communication needs of healthcare organizations, helping improve communications for patients, physicians, and staff. 

Our Customers Say It Best: “What would I do without the customer care group?” asks Betty Bouchie, senior systems analyst, voice services at Capital Health in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  “When I need them, they always come through for me.  The system is so flexible, I can easily handle all the day-to-day needs for our facility, but I seem to encounter the most unusual requests, and yet customer care always manages to find a unique solution and offer the best advice to help me find the right solution.  Their service is individual, knowledgeable, and professional.  Thank you to every lady and gentleman in the group.  You deserve a gold star!”

“Voice logger is a great tool; the operators love it,” adds Fedisha Hampton, supervisor, hospital operators and paging services, at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas, Texas.  “The operators have always been the ‘dumping grounds’ with no back up or proof of any calls.  With voice logger, those are the days of the past.  You can send the calls to anyone who has a complaint and once they receive the calls via email, it’s a whole different respect for your staff.  Before voice logger, we had to ‘bite the bullet’ and apologize for things we know we did not do.  It is also a good tool for the operators because when we go over their calls with them, they can hear tones in their voices that they may not have been aware of at the time of the call.  So it makes them even more conscious of how they handle their callers.  It is great tracking software.  Please invest [in voice logger] and besides you are with the top company, Amtelco, so you won’t go wrong!”

Creating Lasting Partnerships: Every patient deserves the best care possible.  1Call’s goal is to provide healthcare organizations with the tools to efficiently handle caller’s requests with a single phone call, saving time, eliminating confusion, and providing patients with premier service.  1Call systems furnish seamless integrations with existing legacy IT and PBX networks to save costs and bring information together in a single location.  1Call has developed partnerships with Avaya, Cisco, Digium, HL7, and NEC.

Because of the detailed working relationship with customers, 1Call also considers each customer a partner organization.  By continuing to meet and exceed their needs, the list of 1Call partners continues to grow throughout the US and Canada at organizations both large and small. 

Featuring 5-Star Service and Support: 1Call works closely with each healthcare organization, helping them design a customized system that meets their unique needs.  1Call has a reputation for complete, professional system support, offering training, installation, and technical support staff on-call on a 24-hour basis. 

Approximately 70 percent of the customer care group has been with Amtelco for ten or more years.  This promotes a comfortable working relationship between customers and the customer care group.  1Call’s 5-star service and support is more than just a slogan; it comes with every 1Call system, and includes:

• An informed customer care group: project management teams work with customers before, during, and long after they begin using their 1Call equipment.

• Experienced trainers and installers: customers receive detailed training and a smooth installation to help streamline communications for their entire organization.  1Call also offers continuing education opportunities to ensure customers are able to utilize all the system features, including the newest ones.

• Knowledgeable field engineers: customers simply call or e­mail, and the field engineering specialists will assist them with all of their technical questions.

• On-line resource library and tech helper: is available 24/7 for instant answers any time of the day or night; movies covering new features and popular system topics are also available.

• The largest healthcare call center user’s group: the NAEO (National Amtelco Equipment Owners) group gives valuable support and a creative community for sharing ideas.

Innovation in Action: 1Call designs high-performance, reliable software applications that streamline hospital-wide communications.  Frequent software releases give customers access to the newest features and technology.  1Call’s solutions fit both small and large healthcare organizations.

The 1Call systems significantly reduce the training time needed for operators, creating a fast ROI.  Web-based access also simplifies procedures for operators and staff members.  Detailed reporting is included with each 1Call solution, keeping the call center informed.  Other 1Call features include:

• Scripted call processing solutions: Simplify call handling, speed training, and eliminate errors with customized scripts.  Supervisors can easily edit existing scripts or create new scripts at any time.  Script libraries are also available for customers to download and/or upload scripts that handle a wide variety of call types.  The “code call” process is just one of the many scripts that help operators and personnel handle codes hospital-wide.

• Notification solutions: Quickly getting personnel to the correct location is vital.  The 1Call notification solutions are ideal for day-to-day communications, featuring automated and secure SMS, email, and paging for HL7 integrations, helping personnel provide better patient care, as well as for emergency communications, getting personnel to the correct location faster.  The 1Call notification solutions also help customers be proactive and provide better service by reminding patients about upcoming appointments. 

• Scheduling solutions: 1Call features automated workforce scheduling, allowing complex schedules for entire departments to be quickly created.  The 1Call on-call schedules allow physicians and staff members to view, enter, and edit their own on-call schedules.  The automated schedules ensure that operators always contact the correct on-call person.

• IVR and speech solutions: Save time for internal and external callers by automating routine phone calls and provide even better service for patients with IVR and speech solutions.  The speech solutions also create multi-party conference calls and automatically record incoming calls, outgoing calls, and screen captures, helping users maintain accurate records and speeding operator training.

• Secure mobile and desktop solutions: 1Call features a complete collection of enterprise-wide and mobile applications to improve hospital-wide communications, including secure iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Android, and other secure smartphone apps.  For more convenience, 1Call also features a number of communication solutions that are available directly on the physician’s and staff member’s desktops.

Early History: 1Call has a strong history in the telemessaging industry.  Amtelco, the parent company of 1Call, was founded in 1976 to provide communication solutions to the answering service and medical messaging industry.  Bill Curtin, the founder of Amtelco, received his first telecommunications patent in 1951.  Since that time, Amtelco’s innovation has added 30 patents.

Amtelco Today: Under the leadership of Chairwoman of the Board Eleanor Curtin and President Tom Curtin, Amtelco’s main office in Wisconsin houses personnel in solutions development, customer care, field engineering, manufacturing, and administrative staff.  Amtelco also has 12 sales offices and six customer care offices throughout the U.S. and Canada.

A Bright Future: 1Call is dedicated to continuing to provide healthcare organizations with the solutions needed to offer more services while containing costs.  By working closely with customers, 1Call will continue to develop innovative features and products. 

For more information, call 800-225-6035, email info@1call.com, or visit www.1call.com.