Medical Call Center Industry News

Feb/Mar 2006

AnswerStat Expands to Include International Distribution

AnswerStat magazine was originally distributed only in the U.S.  However, from it's inception there has been international interest.  AnswerStat is now accepting international subscription requests for electronic distribution.  Interested readers should go to www.answerstat.com/subscribe to subscribe.

For each issue, an email message will be sent to each subscriber with a link to that issue.  The issues are posted online as PDF files and can be read directly from the computer screen or downloaded for printing or later reading.  Electronic distribution is also available to US-based subscribers.  As an added bonus, PDF files of all issues are available online at www.answerstat.com/issues.

Third Annual National Pediatric Telehealth Conference Announced

Children's Physician Network (CPN) announced the dates of the 2006 National Pediatric Telehealth Conference, "Reach for the Stars."  The third annual conference will start Thursday afternoon September 14^th and conclude Saturday afternoon September 16^th. 

All plenary and breakout sessions will be held at Hotel Sofitel in Bloomington, MN.  The hotel is conveniently located near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis, MN.

The conference is for an audience of office and call center triage nurses, physicians, and administrators.  Further details concerning topics and nationally known speakers will be announced soon.

Children's Physician Network (CPN) is a Minnesota non-profit organization.  The mission of CPN is to "enhance the value of care to children by improving services, supporting health care professionals, and adding a pediatric voice to health care."  CPN is affiliated with Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. 

For more information about CPN, contact Jan Peter Jachimowicz at  612-813-7435 or cpn@childrensmn.org.

RED Alert Receives "Product of the Year" Award

The 1Call Division of Amtelco announced that its RED (Rapid Emergency Deployment) Alert system has received the 2005 "Product of the Year" Award from Technology Marketing Corporation.

"We are very pleased that RED Alert was selected as the Product of the Year," said Tom Curtin, Amtelco President.  "RED Alert offers an innovative and comprehensive package for handling everything from staffing shortages, to emergency situations, and even routine meeting reminders.  Because it allows healthcare organizations to instantly notify, respond, and communicate in any type of situation, RED Alert is also a vital part of an organization's HEICS (Hospital Emergency Incident Command System) plan."

RED Alert is used in healthcare organizations, along with a number of other industries.  Its Alert instant notification system is easy to set up and use and can also provide on-demand conference calls for ongoing communications, as well as recording for historical accuracy and training.

For more information on the RED Alert system or to set up a personal demo, call 800-380-7345 or email redalert@1call.com.

New Article Website Launched

Peter DeHaan Publishing, Inc, publisher of AnswerStat magazine and Connections Magazine, launched a new website, "Article Weekly," featuring articles of a more general nature that have widespread application and appeal.  "Each month we receive many excellent articles that we can't fit into our print magazines," stated the website's creator, Peter DeHaan.  "Sometimes, we just don't have enough room and other times the content, which is valuable and well-written, is broader than the specific focus of our magazines.  Developing a website to showcase this work seemed to be an excellent solution."

The article website contains over 1,000 articles, with new articles being added weekly.  Topics include: Business, Communications, Customer Service, Humor, Leadership, Legal, Internet, Management, Marketing, Sales, and Self-Improvement.  Several of the articles have been written by authors whose work has appeared in AnswerStat magazine and Connections Magazine.

Visit www.ArticleWeekly.com to read articles or to learn more.

ESR Allows Licenses Tracking And Confirmation

Effective January 1, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations required that hospitals and covered health care entities conduct Primary Source Verifications (PSV) on all licensed, registered, or certified staff.  This applies to both full time and contract employees and to the process of tracking license renewals.  The requirements are contained in section HR 1.20 of the JCAHO Human Resources standards.

Employment Screening Resources (ESR), a pre-employment background screening firm, announced PSVcheck™, an online service to help hospitals and covered health care entities comply with these standards for confirming and tracking the professional licenses of staff members.  The ESR PSVcheck™ manages and tracks the entire process to keep covered healthcare entities in compliance with these new standards by obtaining, tracking, updating, and maintaining an audit trail for all employees who are required to be licensed, registered, or certified.

"The trend in healthcare is to increase the obligations and responsibilities of hospital and healthcare providers to ensure that anyone who provides care, treatment, or services is qualified," explained ESR president and attorney, Lester S. Rosen.

Efforts Made to Increase Numbers of Bicultural Nurses

To increase support for bilingual and bicultural nurses nationwide, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) and LatPro.com have announced the formation of a new strategic partnership.  Coinciding with the re-launch of NAHN's website, the heart of the partnership is an integrated Job Center powered by LatPro.com, an employment website for professional bilingual talent in the Americas.

Using LatPro's database, Job Center enables candidates to access quality job listings and create personalized email "job agents."  Also, HR professionals are able to use the Job Center and perform database searches to find in-demand bilingual and bicultural nursing professionals.  The NAHN-LatPro partnership has also resulted in the creation of a new LatPro-sponsored scholarship program that will provide financial assistance to Hispanic students pursuing nursing degrees.

The U.S. is experiencing a shortage of multicultural, Spanish-speaking personnel in nursing and other health professions.  The disparity is particularly evident in the field of nursing, where Hispanics are vastly underrepresented at a mere two percent of the nursing workforce - a stark contrast to the 14.2 percent represented by Hispanics in the total U.S. population.

Columbia University Medical Selects TeleMed

Columbia Faculty Practice Organization (CFPO) has chosen TeleMed, Inc., a nationwide provider of medical answering services, as a preferred provider by the physicians.  CFPO maintains over 150 faculty outpatient locations with over 1,100 physicians serving patients in almost 30 areas of medical specialty throughout the New York metropolitan area.

TeleMed will provide 24/7 answering service coverage to Columbia physicians through two call centers currently serving thousands of physicians from all across the country.  Practice staff will also be able to access and manage account data such as message logs and on-call schedules through TeleMed's secure proprietary web portal, MyTeleMed.

"Columbia Faculty Practice Organization is excited about our new relationship with TeleMed.  Our physicians have been looking for a company that offers outstanding customer service, new technological solutions, and products to enhance patient care," said Susan Aloi, MPA, FACMPE, Assistant Vice President, Clinical Operations.

AnswerNet Acquires Unicall, Expands Outbound Market

The AnswerNet Network a provider of outsourced contact center and telemessaging services has acquired the assets of Unicall International, Inc., an outbound and inbound contact center outsourcer based in Fairlawn, OH.  Unicall will continue to operate as part of the AnswerNet Network's growing 54-site outsourcing business.  Unicall President and founder Ben Harris joins AnswerNet in the role of Corporate Operations Manager, focusing on outbound services and process development.

The addition of Unicall continues AnswerNet's expansion in outbound teleservices.  "Adding Unicall to our company further strengthens the AnswerNet Outbound Group and provides us with a respected and seasoned senior executive to support our growing client base," said Gary A. Pudles, AnswerNet's President and CE .  "Ben's experience in managing fast growing telemarketing businesses will help The AnswerNet Outbound Group's focus on quality service delivery and process development."

The acquisition is also expected to increase market share in the medical market. "AnswerNet's capabilities, expertise, and personality blend with well with ours and we see great opportunities to provide more complete solutions to our combined customer base," said Ben Harris.

 RMD Networks And Rose Communications Network: Partners in E-Healthcare

RMD Networks, Inc. announced that Rose Medical Group, a Colorado-based physician-hospital organization has more than doubled its user base since its installation in 2003.  Built by RMD Networks, Rose Communications Network is a collaborative care network and features more than 340 affiliated physicians.

Internet-based healthcare is revolutionizing the delivery of care across the United States and RMD Networks provides Rose Medical Group with a secure communications and collaboration system.  This technology connects physicians and their staff, patients, laboratories, hospitals, and other healthcare service providers with a HIPAA-compliant, user-friendly system.

"Healthcare is a disconnected business, yet immediate access to critical information is absolutely vital in providing excellent patient care," said Tracy Beranek, executive director at Rose Medical Group.  "Rose Communications Network allows us to connect entire communities of physicians and medical staff with patients for more efficient communication and collaboration that result in a better quality of care, without placing a financial burden on the medical practice to implement or maintain that technology."

"Free Seating" Supported in Alliance Express and  Enterprise Systems

Alliance Recording Systems (ARS) announced that the Alliance Express and Alliance Enterprise digital voice recording solutions now support's "free seating" based on Agent login ID.  Utilizing the ability to capture and store D-channel information (data sent back and forth between the phone switch and the phone set) the Alliance system's can provide enhanced research (agent name) capability with no need for a connection to a CTI or some other database server.  Alliance digital voice recording systems are distributed in the United States by Creative Switching Designs, Inc., a public safety and contact center solutions provider based in Houston, Texas.

For a more information, call 800-571-0911.