Healthcare Contact Center News

December 2011/January 2012

Startel Now Employee-Owned

William Lane, CEO and president of Startel Corporation, announced that Bill Robertshaw has sold the company, which will now be an employee-owned entity backed by private investor, Brian W. Stewart. Bill Lane and the Startel team will remain in place, and the day-to-day operations of the company will not be effected.

“It was in the best interest of Startel Corporation, its employees, and especially its customers to sell the company at this time. Bill Lane has done a superb job of leading Startel out of its post-Comverse years, and I am confident that Startel, with the support of Mr. Stewart, will be able to progress to the next phase in its corporate evolution,” said Robertshaw.

“Mr. Robertshaw, a financial genius, was the perfect advisor for the season of Startel where he helped guide us in focusing on becoming an even more profitable company. He has always had the best interest of Startel and its customers at heart, and selling the company is no exception,” said Lane.

Brian Stewart is a serial entrepreneur and has founded and built over 18 start-up businesses during his career. 

For more information, contact Sheryl Denny at 949-863-8774 or sheryl.denny@startel.com. 

Amcom Granted 510(k) Clearance from FDA

Amcom Software, Inc. announced that its Amcom (Commtech) Messenger middleware received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a class II medical device. For hospitals, this clearance means Amcom Software is ensuring its solution is keeping pace with key industry standards and guidelines.

Amcom Messenger middleware sends critical secondary notifications from patient monitoring and other alert systems to staff carrying wireless communication devices. Its purpose is to help hospitals improve patient care by supplementing a monitoring system’s audible notifications with targeted messages to the right caregiver.

“Amcom Messenger helps hospitals improve how quickly staff can react to a variety of time-critical events, which, in turn, helps improve patient safety and outcomes,” said Chris Heim, president of Amcom Software. “We’re pleased to have received FDA clearance for this solution as it’s an important consideration for our customers today.”

Amcom Messenger middleware helps organizations create an enterprise-wide hub to manage, prioritize, and respond quickly to key events. This includes the ability to send messages to the right people on the right device based on rules set up in a given facility.  

Ambs Call Center Earns 2011 CAM-X Award of Excellence

Ambs Call Center has been honored with the 2011 Award of Excellence for the second consecutive year. The award is presented annually by the Canadian Call Management Association (CAM-X), an industry trade association for providers of call center services. Independent judges are contracted by CAM-X to evaluate call centers throughout North America over a six-month period. The criteria for scoring include courtesy, response time, accuracy, and overall service to their clients. 

“Participation in the CAM-X Award of Excellence program helps make for a great first impression for all callers, even when contact is made after regular business hours. The CAM-X Awards of Excellence program raises the bar for the best customer service experience possible. We congratulate Ambs Call Center for their achievements,” said CAM-X President Tom Sheridan. 

Ambs Call Center provides full service inbound, outbound, and e-bound contact center and fulfillment solutions, processing over 10 million contacts annually. Ambs Call Center was presented with the award at the CAM-X 47th Annual Convention and Trade Show held at the Hyatt Regency in Montreal.

Office Ally Relocates to San Antonio

Office Ally is relocating its corporate office to San Antonio, Texas, where it will also open a customer call center and training facility to accommodate the company’s record-setting growth; it is currently located in Vancouver, Washington. Office Ally offers healthcare providers a suite of revenue-cycle management services including a practice management system, electronic health records, clearinghouse, billing service, and patient portal.

“A year ago we were taking 850 calls a day, and now that number has grown to 1,800,” said President and CEO Brian O’Neill. “The new 17,000-square-foot call center will allow us to better accommodate this growth while also providing a 60-seat space for onsite training for local providers who want to avail themselves of that service.” To handle this volume, O’Neill says that his company will add 100 customer service representatives, trainers, and technicians upon opening in San Antonio. He anticipates growing by an additional 150 employees after six months.

Pro Show Now Available as a Hosted Solution

Healthcare organizations must constantly contend with patients who miss their scheduled appointments without notifying the physician’s office. These “no show” appointments cost thousands of dollars in wasted resources and staff time. 1Call’s Pro Show automated appointment reminder helps healthcare organizations be proactive by reminding patients in advance, saving time and money and increasing staff productivity.

Pro Show has been available as an on-site solution for several years and is now available as a hosted solution. Pro Show reminds patients via home phone, mobile phone, email, and text messages. Reminders can be sent instantly or scheduled. Pro Show can also remind physicians and staff about upcoming meetings, classes, and other events.

Currently, healthcare organizations are sending thousands of automated appointment reminders each month, resulting in a significant reduction of patient no shows. This has also shortened waiting lists, since rescheduling appointments is no longer necessary. 1Call President Tom Curtin said, “The automated Pro Show significantly increases staff productivity, as staff members no longer need to manually call patients to remind them about upcoming appointments.”

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

New Reporting Features for miSecureMessages

1Call’s miSecureMessages™ sends encrypted messages to smartphones and mobile devices and allows for secure two-way communications, making it vital for maintaining Protected Health Information (PHI). It also helps organizations ensure they meet HIPAA and HITECH regulations, while at the same time providing better patient care. It is ideal for replacing pagers with apps available for Android™ mobile devices, BlackBerry®, iPad®, iPhone®, and iPod Touch® to provide secure, two-way messaging.

The software tracks messages sent from operators and messages sent from device to device. The complete audit trail included with miSecureMessages shows the message, when it was sent, when the message was read, what the reply was, and when the reply was sent. This information gives healthcare organizations complete and detailed records for maintaining historical accuracy. The miSecureMessages reports are accessible only by an administrator and can now be exported to Microsoft® Excel® or to Adobe® PDF formats.

1Call President Tom Curtin said, “Keeping detailed records is a necessity for any healthcare organization. miSecureMessages helps clinicians communicate more efficiently and also ensures that healthcare organizations have the vital audit trails they need to protect their clinicians and their healthcare organizations.”

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

OnviSource Introduces Automated QA

OnviSource announced Excella Plus, automated Quality Assurance (QA), and call analytics. Excella Plus integrates with OnviSource’s Explora speech analytics to deliver automated mass monitoring and analysis of recorded interactions. This allows automated monitoring and analysis of every call without having to add QA personnel. Analytics-based QA uses the automation of speech analytics to analyze 100% of recordings to identify those that require a more in-depth analysis for compliance, discovery, and quality management.

Excella Plus uses call recording intelligence to capitalize on hidden opportunities and insights, identify liabilities, and target training efforts. It can provide a comprehensive QA program and share business intelligence, making it economical to provide this as a value-added service. Excella Plus products are integrated with the OnviCenter suite of workforce optimization and automation software products.

OnviSource offers a special service program to assist customers with implementation, deployment, and ROI recognition, including ROI analysis, application analysis, project planning, customization, pilot programs, and hands-on training, as well as business continuity and assurance measures.