AnswerStat News

August 2004

Mississippi to Gain Area Code

As announced by the North American Number Plan Administrator (NANPA), earlier this year the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) approved plans to overlay the 601 area code with the new 769 code.  Since it is an overlay, the new code will serve the same geographic area as the existing 601 code.  The MPSC further stated that all available exchanges in the 601 code would need to be assigned prior to issuing any exchanges in the new 769 code; the earliest possible date for this would be April 18, 2005 .

Since this will be an area code overlay, ten-digit dialing will be required on local calls.  Permissive (or optional) ten-digit dialing for local calls will start on July 19, 2004, continuing until March 14, 2005 .  By March 14, 2005 , ten-digit dialing will be required on all local calls.

Ellen Curran - 2004 Telenurse of the Year

IntelliCare announced that Ellen Curran, RNC, CEN has been named the 2004 Telenurse of the Year, and that Beth Roehm, RN has been named finalist.  IntelliCare launched the Telenurse of the Year award to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of telenursing.

"We are proud of nurses like Ellen Curran and Beth Roehm who are changing the face of healthcare delivery," says Victor C. Otley III, CEO of IntelliCare.

Ellen Curran exemplifies the highest standards for telehealth nursing," says Donna Vincent, telehealth consultant.  "Ellen not only utilizes clinical expertise and protocols to triage her patients, but provides creative solutions to achieve positive outcomes.  Her extensive skills and contributions are worthy of recognition as the Telenurse of the Year."  Ellen's exceptional telephone triage skills and willingness to go the extra step have saved many patients' lives, including a man experiencing chest pain while traveling in a Korean jungle and a woman who had misdiagnosed herself as experiencing an allergic reaction but who needed emergent care to avert a stroke. 

In addition to her work in telenursing, Curran is also a published author.  Her book, Guided Imagery for Healing Children and Teens, was published in 2000.

The finalist for Telenurse of the Year was Beth Roehm, RN, of St. Louis Children's Hospital in , MO.   She has been a nurse for 25 years, and has been a telenurse for nearly five years.  Ms. Roehm has developed a Telephone Triage Training presentation used at industry conferences.  She has been a member of the Health and Parent Education Committee as well as a Charge Nurse for more than three years at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

The Telenurse of the Year award is open to nurses employed by IntelliCare or by the company's software clients.  The judges for the Telenurse of the Year Award comprised of: Peter DeHaan, Editor and Publisher, AnswerStat Magazine; Maureen Espensen, MBA, BSN, RNC, and Manager, Clinical Hotline Services, TheraCom; Becky Pyle, RN, MS, and editor of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing "ViewPoint" newsletter; Sherry Smith RN, MS, MBA, telehealth consultant; Donna Vincent RN, BSN, MA, telehealth consultant; and Sheila Wheeler RN, MS, telephone triage expert and author of Telephone Triage: Theory, Practice, and Protocol Development.

IntelliCare, Inc. provides services and technology for intelligent patient and provider healthcare communications. 

1Call's Response to Emergency Deployment Alert Conferencing

Remaining in contact with personnel during emergency and disaster situations is vital.  In addition to emergency notification, 1Call's RED (Response to Emergency Deployment) alert system features conferencing and recording capabilities to keep personnel constantly informed. 

As many as 40 people can be included in a single conference call, including people at emergency sites, hospitals, and remote locations.  Conferences can be created with or without operator assistance, giving organizations the options they need to react quickly in emergencies.  Conference calls can be recorded and are saved as WAV files for review, archival, or even training.

1Call's RED alert emergency notification system gives healthcare facilities a fast method for notifying personnel in disaster and emergency situations.  RED alert saves time for healthcare staff, reduces errors, and speeds the organization's overall response time.  Disaster and emergency plans are entered into the RED alert system in advance and can be quickly activated when needed.  The designated personnel can automatically be notified by pager, wireless message, fax, or automated callouts with a prerecorded or text-to-speech message. 

For more information on 1Call's RED Alert Emergency Notification and Conferencing system, contact 1Call at 800-356-9148 or info@1call.com.

Tufts Health Plan Chooses IntelliCare

IntelliCare, a provider of medical contact center services and technology, announced it was chosen by Tufts Health Plan to deliver nurseline services to employees of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that join Navigator^TM by Tufts Health Plan.  Effective July 1, 2004 , Commonwealth of employees will have access to the following IntelliCare services:

• 24/7 access to registered nurses for medical triage and health questions
• Access to IntelliCare's audio health library, of 400 pre-recorded health topic messages

Through 24/7 telephone access, IntelliCare's registered nurses perform triage and guide patients to healthcare information and programs that will support Tufts Health Plan's commitment to providing quality health care coverage.  IntelliCare's nurseline services will enable Tufts Health Plan to deliver timely access to healthcare information for its Commonwealth of Massachusetts Navigator ^TM members.

"IntelliCare offers trained clinical professionals with extensive health care expertise, providing Commonwealth of Massachusetts Navigator ^TM members access to health care information and support," says Anne Metzger, Vice President of Clinical Services at Tufts Health Plan.

"Properly implemented, nurseline services can be a critical component in enhancing a health plan's overall care management solution," stated Victor C. Otley III, CEO of IntelliCare.  "We are pleased to be chosen by such a prestigious client as Tufts Health Plan and look forward to contributing to the excellent service it provides to its members."

Telescan Receives Patent for Prism DSP

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent to Telescan for the Prism DSP Digital Switching Platform.  The patent recognizes the uniqueness of the Telescan process.  The patent, issued June 1, 2004 , acknowledges 22 claims to invention, specifically the method for processing calls from any source based on call setup and database lookup on the call.

"The patent confirms what Telescan has been saying for several years," said John P. Jones, Director of Engineering, "We have the leading edge product with a unique implementation.  The patent confirms that Prism DSP does what no one else can do."

The Prism DSP was developed nearly five years ago under the direction of George Meyer, founder of Telescan, with John Jones and Telescan's staff.  Telescan filed for the patent in 2000.  Since then several new features have been added to give Telescan users more functionality and provide more solutions.  "A lot of work went into developing the Prism DSP and this patent shows that it was well worth the effort."  Meyer said.

Find out more about Telescan and Prism call 800-770-7662.

TeleTriage Systems Announces Conference, Survey

      TeleTriage Systems, of San Anselmo , announced that information about their upcoming Telephone Triage Conference is now available on-line at their website, www.teletriage.com.  Founder and President Sheila Wheeler also announced a marketing survey.  The survey is available for industry participants to be "part of a very important survey soliciting their input on telephone triage products and services."

For more information, contact TeleTriage Systems at info@teletriage.com.

CenturiSoft Announces Availability of CSTA Integration

CenturiSoft announced immediate availability of CSTA (Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications) messaging to various switch manufacturers into the Centuri Messenger product.  With CenturiSoft, integration of CSTA messaging into the Centuri Messenger provides customers with seamless integration to their existing and new switches in the future.  Key features include single channel transfers (with ISDN, PRI, and Channel Applied Signaling circuits), call queuing, notification alerts, and call display capabilities.

"Seamless call control is critical for quality services to be rolled out today and in the future," stated John Pope, President of CenturiSoft.

For more information, call 800-866-1929.

Lindell Bates Joins Telescan's Sales Team

Telescan announced the addition of Lindell Bates to their fast-growing sales team.  Bates previously served as Director Technical Services for National Scope, a St. Louis based software firm and as Sales Director for GE Network Solutions.  His resume also includes positions with LAN-WAN and GTE.

In announcing the addition of Bates, Telescan Director, Robert Riggs, Jr. said, "Bates has excellent experience in many technical areas of our business including telephony and software development.  We feel he will add another dimension to our expanding sales team."

As Telescan's new Western Sales Manager, Bates hopes to draw on his extensive software experience in attracting non-traditional markets to the industry.  Bates' initial responsibilities will include the area from San Diego to .  The Telescan sales team now includes Patty Anderson, St. Louis; Ken Brantley, Atlanta; Gary Land, Los Angeles; and now Lindell Bates, who will work from Telescan's St. Louis ,

For more information, contact Telescan at 800-770-7662.

1Call Seminars Keep Healthcare Call Centers Informed

To keep healthcare organizations up to date, the 1Call Division of Amtelco recently held two seminars.  The first, a 1Call Management Seminar, was held May 4-6 in Madison , WI .  1Call customers had a chance to discuss account design and efficiency, MDR, call distribution, Infinity automation, new Infinity features, and on-call scheduling. 

On June 10, 1Call presented the first one-day, five-hour Road Show seminar to regional 1Call customers and prospects in healthcare organizations, in Falls Church ,   Topics at this seminar included ways to consolidate services and improve efficiencies to quickly generate a positive ROI (return on investment), using Enterprise-Wide applications to give everyone access to vital information, going beyond caller and staff expectations with speech recognition, and how to speed response times in emergencies. 

Seminar attendees reported that these sessions were valuable and would help them improve communications at their organizations.  Because of the success of this seminar, additional 1Call Road Show seminars will be held around the United States.  The next one will be held this fall in the southwest United States.

For more information, contact 1Call at 800-356-9148 or info@1call.com.

Telescan Upgrades Spectrum for PDAs

Recognizing the importance of interactive text messaging in the teleservices industry, Telescan has completed their latest upgrade to the Spectrum Messenger's email platform.  This upgrade allows agents to instantly communicate with clients through any two-way device such as PC-based phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). 

Taking the interactive messaging technology even farther, the new Spectrum Data Manager will feature the internet protocols, SNPP (Simple Network Paging Protocol) ― a standard for sending one and two-way wireless messages to paging devices, as well as SMS (Short Message Service), which is the protocol used in many popular cell phone text-messaging services. 

For more information, contact Telescan at 800-770-7662.

IntelliCare to Acquire NightCall Physician Services

IntelliCare, Inc., a national provider of medical contact center services, announces it will acquire certain assets of Buffalo, NY-based NightCall Physician Services, P.C.  NightCall provides telephone nurse triage services to support 55 physician practices and a 24-hour medical help line for Independent Health members.  IntelliCare will continue to employ local nurses and deliver 24/7 nurse triage and medical contact center services to 350,000 Independent Health members and patients of participating physician practices.

"We are excited to expand into the market with NightCall's highly experienced and devoted nurses and staff," said IntelliCare chairman and CEO Victor C. Otley III.  "We will continue to explore new opportunities to help us meet the increasing national demand for high-quality healthcare services."

Currently, the NightCall contact center receives more than 80,000 calls per year from patients.  Because IntelliCare and NightCall use the same triage guidelines and quality assurance processes, a seamless transition is anticipated.

"While NightCall has provided an important service to members and physicians, IntelliCare's national presence and advanced technology will provide greater value to patients and physicians," said Dr. Tom Foels, NightCall president.

Call Compliance Adds Call Monitoring to its Online Guide

Call Compliance, Inc. announced that it has added a new section to its online compilation of State and Federal telemarketing regulations, the Regulatory Guide(SM).  Call Compliance is the industry leader in Do Not Call compliance and related services.  This new section provides a complete report on call monitoring statutes and related case law across the United States.

"We are constantly seeking to ensure that our Regulatory Guide is the best and most complete compilation of all the rules and regulations impacting the teleservices industry," said Joseph Sanscrainte, General Counsel for Call Compliance and the Regulatory Guide's Chief Editor.

The teleservices industry is subject to a multitude of rules and regulations governing virtually every area of its operations.  The industry's activities regarding call monitoring for quality assurance and call taping for billing purposes are no exception.  The Regulatory Guide(SM) is available online and is updated regularly.

"The Call Compliance Regulatory Guide(SM) has quickly become the chief compliance resource for the teleservices industry," reported Dean Garfinkel, the CEO of Call Compliance, Inc.  "Now, with call monitoring information, it provides an even more powerful tool."

Powerware 9390 Ready for Next-Generation Data Centers

IT managers, engineers, and specifiers responsible for protecting critical infrastructure equipment can now enjoy a new three-phase, uninterruptible power system (UPS) developed to provide the best combination of power performance, battery management, scalable architecture, flexibility, and service.  The Powerware 9390 features a double conversion design that completely isolates output power from all input power anomalies and delivers a perfect sine-wave output.  The system enables customers to "pay as they grow" by supporting loads from 40 kVA to 160 kVA in a base configuration.

"Pressure to ensure 100 percent uptime and to cost-effectively manage space is forcing IT managers to closely evaluate the type of UPS systems that ensure the best efficiency and manageability," said Farah Saeed, analyst at Frost & Sullivan.  "Our research indicates that Powerware has an unmatched reputation for highly reliable products.  Powerware's latest UPS product line, Powerware 9390, demonstrates to the world again its commitment to fulfill customer requirements and validates why Powerware received our 2004 product line strategy award for demonstrating the most insight into customer needs and product demands."

For more information, contact Allan Evans at allan.evans@powerware.com or 919-878-6064.

McLaren Regional Medical Center Selects IntelliCare

McLaren Regional Medical Center , a 458-bed teaching hospital within the McLaren Health Care Corporation, has agreed to outsource its medical contact center operations to IntelliCare, Inc. of ,   By outsourcing to IntelliCare, McLaren will be able to expand contact center operations to provide full 24/7 availability for the first time.  IntelliCare will help McLaren Regional Medical Center field the 1,000 calls it receives each month from its community for physician referrals.

According to Kevin Tompkins, Vice President of Marketing at McLaren, outsourcing call center services will enable the medical center to expand patient services while improving efficiency.  "By outsourcing to IntelliCare, McLaren will be able to expand our call center service hours from five days a week to 24/7, which will greatly improve customer service," said Tompkins. 

"We anticipate that outsourcing will reduce our costs between 10 and 30 percent and also provide us with the ability to track downstream revenue resulting from physician and service referrals," he said.  Tompkins also notes that IntelliCare's infrastructure and ability to scale will help the medical center support special campaigns and offer fulfillment services and programs that support its Centers of Excellence.

Wizzard Software Continues Development Talking Prescription Bottle

Wizzard Software Corp. and MedivoxRx Technologies Inc., a division of Wizzard, announced they are completing development of the next generation of "Rex," their talking pill bottle.  The new version is fully automated through text-to-speech technology, allowing pharmacists to electronically record the label information to the pill bottle in a natural sounding computer-generated voice using the pharmacy's current software and data. 

Not only will this increase the speed of recording to the bottle by making it a one-step process, it also eliminates room for error by transferring information directly from the pharmacy's existing database as opposed to the pharmacist recording the information.  The current version of Rex has already tested positively with many visually impaired individuals.

Rex not only benefits the individual user, but also the issuing pharmacy and the healthcare system.  There are approximately 3.2 billion prescriptions filled each year in the U.S. and pharmaceutical errors create $45-$80 billion in additional medical spending with the number one error being labeling problems and education.  Wizzard plans to make the talking bottles available in retail pharmacies. 

ATSI Awards Gold Call Center Certification

Association of Teleservices International (ATSI) is pleased to announce that A Better Connection has received the Gold 24/7 Call Center Certification Award.  The Certification indicates that A Better Connection/Arizona Physician's Answering Service has met or exceeded high standards in the following areas: business practices, life safety, operations, including normal and emergency procedures, personnel hiring, training and ongoing evaluations through a peer review program focusing on 99.9% annual run time.

 ATSI, based in Atkinson, NH, is an international trade association established by and for entrepreneurs in the TeleServices business.  Contact ATSI at 866-896-2874.

BenchmarkPortal Releases RealityCheck

BenchmarkPortal's newly released RealityCheck™ instantly analyzes call center performance - for free!  After completing a short survey, they will compare your call center's performance to those in your industry and rank your center in both efficiency and effectiveness. 

RealityCheck™ instantly generates a report after data is submitted.  Dr. Jon Anton, Director of Benchmark Research at Purdue University 's Center for Customer-Driven Quality states, "We have metrics from thousands of call centers and Benchmarking has never been easier." 

Interest Renews in Employee Portals

With economic conditions continuing to improve, companies are once again investing in employee portals and corporate intranets in an effort to make them more functional and easier to use, according to Watson Wyatt, a leading human capital consulting firm.

"Investment in portals, which had been on hold for much of the past three years, is now on the rise," said Michael Rudnick, national intranet and employee portal leader at Watson Wyatt.  "Many employers were not in a financial position to keep their portals current with growing employee demands, but they are now devoting the necessary resources to upgrade and improve their portals."

The timing for portal enhancement is right for several reasons.  Chief among them is employee expectations, said Rudnick, who is now working with several employers on their next-generation portals.

"Portals allow HR to focus more on strategic initiatives and less on routine administrative activities, such as fielding questions about benefits and completing forms," said Rudnick.  "And by encouraging employees to use the portals, employers can increase the effectiveness of internal communications and lower the associated costs."

Companies seeking greater returns on their employee portal investments are considering more sophisticated capabilities, such as role-based personalization, smart searching, and internal blogs. 

"The bottom line is that companies should approach portal expansion strategically and focus on tools that create efficiencies and help align employees with organizational objectives," says Rudnick.

Web-Based Triage and Appointment System Implemented at UCF

The University of Central Florida (UCF) has implemented WebMed, its name for DSHI's on-line system for Student Health.  UCF's 42,000 students can now select from hundreds of symptoms and get expert advice 24/7 - even when Student Health is closed.  Thousands of disease, injury, drug, and other topics are also available.

"It's for students who are at home or restricted by hours from visiting the Center on campus," said Terry W. Wheeler, technology supervisor for Student Health Services.  "It's a natural extension of existing health services."

"24/7WebMed is a web-based medical information service," said Dr. Michael Deichen, the physician director of UCF Student Health.  "In particular, it is a system that allows for automated triage.  UCF Student Health Services will be the first College Health facility in the country to utilize this resource."

Early data shows triage encounters only take a few minutes and can accurately direct students to Student Health, emergency care, or a self-care disposition.  As part of this project, UCF's College of Nursing is applying for research grants to study various aspects of this system.

For more information, contact DHSI at 321-637-0321 or sales@dshisystems.com.