AnswerStat Industry News

October/November 2007

Two New Infinity Operator Performance Reports Now Available

The 1Call Division of Amtelco announced the availability of two new Infinity reports to help monitor operator performance and assist with scheduling.  The reports, which are specifically designed to integrate with the Aspect™ Workforce Management software, include the Infinity forecast, scheduling, and tracking report, and the Infinity agent productivity report.

The Infinity forecast, scheduling, and tracking report includes the number of inbound calls, average answer time, average work time, number of dial outs, and more, and can be used to help better define staffing needs.  The Infinity agent productivity report generates an overview of each operator handling calls and includes counts and average times to determine each operator's effectiveness.  When used with call traffic reports, these reports help determine staffing requirements.

These new reports are available for purchase with Infinity Software Version 5.3 and newer versions.  The reports become part of the Infinity unified reports package based on Crystal Reports^® 9.0 and the Infinity IS reports package, based on Crystal XI.  Both are open-source reports, allowing customization using Crystal Reports tools.

For more information, call 800-356-9148, or email info@1call.com.

National Telehealth Conference Attracts International Audience

Children's Physician Network's (CPN) Fourth Annual National Telehealth Conference was held September 27th through 29^th at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Hilton.  This annual conference provides valuable information for office and call center triage nurses, physicians, and administrators.  This year's conference made available continuing education credits for physicians (CMEs) and nurses (Contact Hours). 

Attendees from throughout the U.S. registered for the conference, along with groups from Canada and Japan.  In addition, the number of companies exhibiting has nearly doubled from last year.  Included among the nationally recognized presenters are:

• Barton Schmitt, MD; The Children's Hospital, Denver and University of Colorado
• David Thompson, MD; MacNeal Hospital, Chicago
• L. Read Sulik, MD CentraCare Health System, St. Cloud, MN
• Andrew Hertz, MD, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland

Children's Physician Network (CPN) is a Minnesota non-profit organization.  Its mission 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. 

AAACN Responds to Discontinuance of Telephone Nursing Certification Exam

The National Certification Corporation's (NCC) recent announcement that it will discontinue offering the Telephone Nursing Practice Certification Exam as of January 1, 2008, came as a disappointment to the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) and the many telehealth nurses who are certified and those who planned to become certified. 

AAACN is the professional specialty nursing association that has set the standards for telehealth nursing practice and provides telehealth education, resources, and networking.  While AAACN is the association for telehealth nursing, it was not associated with NCC or the telephone certification exam.  AAACN regrets the discontinuance of the exam, but also understands NCC's rationale in making this business decision.

"Because telehealth is an important component of ambulatory care nursing practice, our telehealth nurses are dismayed that the exam was suddenly discontinued," AAACN President Charlene Williams, MBA, BSN, RNC, BC, said. "They are concerned about the impact on the future of telehealth nursing." 

AAACN hosted a visioning meeting with key telehealth leaders on August 4, 2007.  While this landmark meeting was called to discuss the future of telehealth nursing, the announcement about the exam was added to the agenda and its possible impact explored.

Contact AAACN at 800-262-6877 or aaacn@ajj.com.

University of Toledo Purchases Red Alert Safety System

The Safety and Health Department at the University of Toledo (UT) has purchased a Red Alert safety system to help ensure the security of students and employees on Main, Scott Park, and Health Science campuses.  According to Gary Jankowski, associate vice president of safety and health, an ad hoc task force was created to identify and prioritize the most pressing safety issues facing UT campuses.  A major issue on Main Campus was the lack of a campus-wide public announcement system or mass communication system.

"It was important to do this because in the event of a tornado warning for the area or a violent episode on campus somewhere or in the case of a child who has been abducted from the day-care center, for example, there was no effective way to get this critical information out to the campus community quickly and in widespread fashion," Jankowski said.

Red Alert, provided by 1Call, a division of Amtelco, will have many capabilities, including delivery of mass alerts to faculty, staff, students, or pre-defined groups via pagers, email, text messages, and telephone.

Homecare Telehealth Expected to Grow Despite Current Barriers to Adoption

The desire to overcome the challenges facing all healthcare systems, including pressures to increase quality of care while decreasing overall healthcare costs, has lead to a growing interest in the application of telehealth solutions.  In particular, homecare telehealth, also known as remote patient monitoring (RPM), is gaining traction and has already surpassed the clinical telehealth market.  A new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor predicts the homecare telehealth market will grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56% compared to 9.9% in the clinical market. The Datamonitor report, Telehealth's Increasing Role in Healthcare, expects that the overall global telehealth market will exceed $8 billion by 2012.

Telehealth is the use of a digital network to provide automated monitoring and treatment delivery to a patient who is in a different physical location than the medical expert providing treatment.  It can refer to simple communications like emails sent between patients and providers to extremely complex procedures like remote robotic surgery.  Today, common forms of telehealth include video conferencing and home monitoring devices.

IP Controlled Power Strips Protect and Maintain Uptime of Devices

Dataprobe, a manufacturer of technology solutions for networking systems management, released a new remote power distribution and management solution, the iBootBar.  The iBootBar enables Web browser control of eight A/C power outlets for reboot and remote power control of multiple devices.  With the iBootBar, users can protect and maintain devices in areas that cannot easily be accessed and streamline power control of servers, routers, and other devices through a single Web interface.  A serial port or optional internal modem is also provided for out-of-band access when the network is unavailable.  The iBootBar also supports Telnet, SNMP, SMTP, and SSL security. 

The iBootBar can be configured to monitor networked equipment and will automatically reboot the equipment in the case of a system freeze.  Dataprobe's autoping feature continuously monitors multiple IP addresses and takes programmed action when it detects non-responsive systems.

Total Quality Communications Changes Name to Answer Center America

Total Quality Communications, provider of call center services, has changed its name to Answer Center America, Inc.  The company is a 24-hour virtual receptionist, offering live medical answering services, bilingual services, and routing services

"Companies face problems with inconsistent answering services and often lose customers when they call after hours," said Michael C. McMillan, President of Answer Center America, Inc.  "Answer Center America has established itself as more than just a call center with state of the art equipment and dedicated customer service agents.  Our sole focus is the growth of our clients' businesses," McMillan added.

eTelecare Breaks Ground on Call Center in Makati City 

eTelecare Global Solutions, a provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions, announced the construction of a new service delivery center in Makati City, Philippines.  With a total floor area of 18,000 square meters, the center will be one of the largest facilities in the Philippines, dedicated solely to business process outsourcing.

eTelecare expects to employ at least 3,000 employees at the new facility.  When the new facility is fully operational, its total headcount in the Philippines will be 13,000.  The company also has over 2,600 employees in the United States, spread among seven call centers in Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

eTelecare provides call center services to the healthcare and other industries. 

Customer Service Expert Shares Secrets for Customer Service Success

Hot off the press, How to Kick Your Customer Service Up a Notch: 101 Insider Tips, customer service expert Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D., reveals the insider tips you need to know to propel your customer service up a notch and give your organization the edge over the competition.

"If you're looking for someone with powerful information and strategies to help you, then Rosanne is the one you absolutely must listen to!" said Matt Bacak, Frontier Marketing Intl.  "Never in my life have I met someone so candid and full of such integrity."  If you want to improve your productivity, performance, efficiency, and effectiveness, these tips will "kick it up for you."  

Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D., an industrial psychologist, master trainer, consultant, and president of Human Technologies Global, Inc., is known in the industry as the "practical champion of the human" and an expert in customer service.