Medical Call Center Industry News

August/September 2009

Amcom Releases Enhanced Smart Console

Amcom Software, Inc. released its enhanced Smart Console call center software.  Highlights in the latest version include:

• Enhanced user interface improves both look and feel and ease of use.

• Enhanced operator efficiency and communication tools allow faster phone number editing, on-call scheduling from the console, faster global search, and team chat capabilities.

• Expanded platform capability and support allow integration with new telephony devices and the ability to run on Microsoft Vista.  Also, in the event of a network outage, communications can be maintained using a local copy of Smart Console.

• Timesaving administration and improved configuration: Software updates to be tested on a single PC and then automatically distributed to all PCs, ensuring everyone has the latest software.

“Organizations that rely on our call center software every day, as well as those considering this type of solution, will see tremendous benefit in the ease of use and solid functionality this latest version provides,” said Chris Heim, CEO, Amcom Software.  “Our development team was able to incorporate customer feedback into their process and truly appreciate the time our customers took to provide their candid input.” 

For more information, call 800-852-8935.

LVM Systems Opens Users’ Conference to Industry

LVM Systems invites all healthcare call centers to their 2009 conference, Essential Pieces – Supporting Your Success.  It is Wednesday and Thursday, October 21-22 at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in Arizona and offers an industry-centered agenda with three concurrent tracks:   

• Clinical (with Continuing Education contact hours offered)

• Marketing and strategy

• Consulting

Headliners include Doctors Barton Schmitt and David Thompson, authors of the telephone triage protocols and self-care guides.  They will present “Ten Pediatric Infections Not to Miss” and “Dangerous Pregnancy Symptoms,” as well as be available for clinical networking sessions and an informal Q & A.  

The marketing and strategy keynote is Travis Froehlich, vice president of planning for the Seton Family of Hospitals in Austin, Texas.  Froehlich has expanded Seton's triage call center to an enterprise-wide hub for patient navigation, including disease management, transfers, and referral services.  “Moving the Call Center to an Enterprise Role” is an essential session for vice presidents and managers with a grander vision for access management and optimizing patient connections.  More than 20 additional presentations will be made by call center managers and industry leaders. 

1Call Introduces MiteyMite Communication Tool

1Call introduced MiteyMite, a software application that allows physicians and all staff enterprise-wide to quickly and easily communicate with fellow staff members.  This eliminates the need for sticky notes, paper directories, printing costs, wasted time trying to find numbers, and calling operators.  The results are better quality care to patients through more efficient staff communications.

MiteyMite can call, page, or send an email, SMS text message, or instant message.  It uses SIP dialing to call or page anyone directly from the desktop and even record the conversation.  Additionally, it also keeps physicians and staff updated about important organization information by displaying the designated RSS feeds. 

Using the MiteyMite’s incremental search box, physicians, and staff can rapidly locate staff members by typing a name or phone number.  With each keystroke, the search results are updated with the closest matching name or number, saving time for physicians and staff.  MiteyMite can access information in optional directories, patient information directories, and link to Microsoft^® Outlook^® contacts.

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

Healthcare Reform Paper: The Case for Publicly Funded Medical Call Centers

Doctors Barton Schmitt and Andrew Hertz have recently completed a position paper regarding the role of medical call centers in healthcare reform.  “The impetus for the paper,” explained Schmitt, “was largely because I have not heard anyone in government mention telephone care as part of their solution.”  Medical call centers are used in many other countries and have been found to be cost-effective.  Yet in the U.S., only New Mexico has implemented a publicly funded call center for all of their state’s uninsured.

The position paper, titled The Case for Publicly Funded Medical Call Centers, offers as a premise that, “every citizen should have the right to reach a telephone care nurse at any hour, day or night, for assistance with illnesses, injuries, or other acute medical problems.”  Its content describes the primary functions of today’s medical call centers, an overview of their outcomes, evidence of their ability to reduce healthcare costs, and recommendations for making these centers a critical part of universal access to healthcare.

For a copy of the three-page document with references contact sue@stcc-triage.com.

Award-Winning Occupational Exposure Hotline Goes National

Fonemed and Florida Hospital’s Centra Care are offering their successful Occupational Exposure Hotline to organizations employing healthcare workers, first responders, and other at-risk groups throughout the United States and Canada.  The program has been serving nearly a half million Florida firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, dentists, prison guards, and various municipal employee groups for over a decade.  In 2008, the exposure hotline won an award from URAC’s national accreditation commission for best practices in patient safety.

Supported by Florida Hospital medical specialists, Fonemed is deploying specially-trained registered nurses throughout the US to respond by telephone to members exposed to blood and body fluids, communicable diseases, and unusual substances.  The hotline, using advanced technology and CDC protocols, allows nurses to provide a single point of contact for assessing exposure risks, providing follow-up care recommendations, and documenting urgent situations.

Michael Stringfellow, a paramedic in Texas, noted, “Our members face daily the possibility of puncture wounds, infected persons, and potentially toxic substances.  Waiting, or even a trip to an emergency room, frequently is not an option.  In my opinion, an exposure program of this caliber is an invaluable asset.”

Cosmopolitan Medical Communications Awarded Gold Call Center Certification

Association of Teleservices International (ATSI) announced that Cosmopolitan Medical Communications has re-qualified for the Gold 24/7 Call Center Certification Award.  The certification indicates that Cosmopolitan Medical Communications 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.

 “I believe awards and outside recognition simply demonstrate the extra effort we put into our company philosophy which has been acknowledged by our various awards, including ‘Best Places to Work,’ three continuous years of the ATSI Award of Excellence, and the Alfred P Sloan for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility,” said Margo Weiss, president of  Cosmopolitan.  

3CN Welcomes Joe Frein

Joe Frein joins Call Center Consulting Network (3CN) with over 20 years in healthcare software development.  He was formerly with McKesson/RelayHealth, where he was a senior software engineer.  Most of Joe’s recent work has been designing and implementing custom add-on programs to call center software.

One such development addition was a “syndromic surveillance” program that analyzed nurse triage calls and reported any risks or outbreaks to the state health departments.  The reporting allowed a drill-down to the street level.  He has also developed data integrations services for sharing data within many different hospital information systems.  These included both real time and batch interfaces for patient, provider, and triage data. 

With 3CN, Joe is now available for any of the following engagements:

• Project planning, including definition of data requirements and data mapping

• Custom programming and SQL database scripts

• Syndromic surveillance data feeds to your state health department

• Data conversions and interfaces

• Documentation on custom projects provided for both the IT staff and end users

• Custom executive reporting

Contact Joe at joe.frein@3cn.org or 480-307-6068.

Special Delivery via 1Call’s Two-Way SMS Text Messaging

1Call announced a better method for delivering critical messages with 1Call’s two-way SMS text messaging capabilities.  As the need to send text messages to cell phones continues to increase, the speed and reliability of SMS is a necessity.  SMS delivers convenience by allowing physicians and staff to receive SMS text messages no matter where they are.  Unlike standard text messages, which can be delayed, true SMS messages are delivered quickly and reliably.

Staff members receiving SMS messages from Infinity IS can easily reply to messages to confirm receipt, saving time for call centers, patients, and staff.  When a reply is received, the message can be marked delivered or sent to an operator for review.  All replies are documented in the message history.

 “Two-way SMS is here and will save everyone time.  This feature lets staff communicate instantly to the call center by text message to automate message receipt confirmation,” said Amtelco President Tom Curtin.  “Everyone should get on board with text messaging and the two-way capabilities.  Not knowing if staff has received the message has always been a black hole, and now it is solved.”

Contact 1Call at 800-356-9148 or info@1call.com.

Industry Survey on Quality Practices

In August 2009, Call Center Consulting Network (3CN) will sponsor a Quality Practices survey for the services of triage and physician referral and appointments.  It will be open to healthcare call center managers across North America and focus on areas of policies, processes, behaviors/skills evaluated, and outcomes measures.  The survey will also include a drill-down of the evaluation methodology and the roles of those who conduct quality assessments.

Several elements of this 2009 survey will be repeated from the 2002 analysis, offering how quality programs have evolved over time.  New additions include questions regarding service level standards (for both services) and the role of the call center medical director (for triage sites).

The Quality Practice results will be available to all call center managers who participate.  Participants will be asked to identify themselves only to the extent necessary to verify their organization and contact information for results.  All data will be aggregated so that no individual responses will be discernable.  Specific section highlights will be published in articles and featured in presentations at upcoming conferences. 

For more information, email sue.altman@3cn.org.

Home Telehealth Limited Wins Second National Award

The Annual MediLink UK Innovation Awards were recently held at the Haberdashers Hall in London.  The awards celebrate the achievements of the UK health technology sectors and provide recognition of the achievements of those companies who have excelled.  

“The NHS Innovations Partnership with the NHS Award,” for collaboration with the NHS that resulted in both improved business performance and benefited patient care through innovation, was awarded to Home Telehealth Limited in recognition of their work with the NHS in the provision of a new concept in telehealth-enabled care delivery for the management of people with long-term chronic conditions.

The award resulted from Home Telehealth Limited's solutions being commissioned as an equipment supplier, but they were also recognized as a service provider delivering world class commissioning standards for Telehealth Managed Services through the delivery of end-to-end telehealth programs.  This was achieved by providing the daily triaging of patients with long-term chronic conditions via its Belfast-based, nurse-led care center operation.

These services came into being when the directors of commissioning for the NHS Trust decided to use the services of Home Telehealth Limited as a telehealth service provider rather than purchasing equipment and running their own in-house service.

IVR Market to Grow to $2.7 Billion by 2011

DMG Consulting LLC published its inaugural Hosted/Managed Service IVR Market Report.  This comprehensive report notes that the recession has sped up the pace of adoption and infused momentum into the hosted/managed service IVR market.  After years of relative quiet, the IVR market is growing rapidly based on the strength of new applications, rapid deployments, and product innovation from a range of highly competitive hosted/managed service providers. 

DMG projects a four-year compound annual growth rate of 13.4% for the hosted/managed-inbound IVR sector and 18.7% for the outbound IVR segment.  Sales of premise-based IVR solutions are expected to decline over the same period. 

“Self-service IVR solutions are important for enterprises in good times and become critical when budgets are tight because they are highly effective in automating interactions that do not require the cognitive capabilities of live agents,” said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting. 

The report provides in-depth coverage of seven leading hosted/managed service providers and addresses all of the other competitors in this sector. 

To learn more or order the report, contact Deborah Navarra at 516-628-1098 or deborah.navarra@dmgconsult.com.

Social Media Creating Quick Adoption of SymptomMD

Adoption and use of SymptomMD and Pediatric SymptomMD, the iPhone / iPod touch consumer applications based upon the Barton Schmitt-David Thompson telephone triage protocols, has been escalated by positive reviews distributed via Twitter, Facebook, and various blogs. 

“We didn’t realize how much social media would impact SymptomMD adoption,” stated Sue Altman, executive director of Self Care Decisions.  “The positive reviews of our iPhone apps have spread quickly.  The top reviewers are very connected  - usually talking/Tweeting to more than one medium.”

A recent AppStruck review was also instantly distributed on Twitter, naming SymptomMD as one of “6 Apps That Make Mom’s Life Easier.”

“Today’s mom community is comprised of extremely active networkers,” Altman shared.  “They share a common bond in identifying and sharing the best tools and resources for supporting their multi-faceted roles and, of course, their families.  We've been reviewed by AppCraver, the iPhone AppReview, WorkItMom, and about a dozen bloggers - all giving a ‘thumbs up’ for SymptomMD’s easy navigation, clear language, and step-by-step self-care instructions.”

The American Teleservices Association Convention in New Orleans

The American Teleservices Association (ATA) 2009 Convention & Expo will “Answer the Call” this year in New Orleans, October 4-7.  Contact center professionals from across the United States and around the world will convene to understand best-practice strategies for economic recovery, learn how to respond to the changing face of customer communication, and find out the most pressing legal issues regarding call center operations and management.  The New Orleans venue was intentionally selected to answer the philanthropic call of a city that still needs economic support and development.

“The 2009 theme, Answering the Call, is really about understanding how to maximize the value of every contact with each and every customer or prospect,” said Tim Searcy, ATA CEO.  In addition, the breakout sessions will offer specific implementation strategies, and numerous exhibitors will display emerging technologies. 

Attendees can network during the ATA Expo, attend on-site and off-site networking events, and join the fun during the ATA-Political Action Committee event and the Annual ATA Awards Gala and Casino Night festivities.  The Call Centers Care initiative will work at a Habitat for Humanity service project at the convention’s conclusion.