Medical Call Center News

December 2009 / January 2010

LVM Systems Scores Big in Customer Satisfaction Ratings

Since its formation in 1988, LVM Systems has held customer service as one of its cornerstones and a key differentiator in their healthcare call center niche.  According to their 2009 client satisfaction survey, LVM is still hitting the mark.  More than 125 clients participated in the 13-question survey that gathered feedback on interaction with LVM staff and overall customer service and satisfaction.  Key results were:

• When interacting with LVM staff members, which best describes your experience?  70.7% very satisfied; 26% satisfied (total of 96.7%)

• Overall, how satisfied are you with the customer service LVM provides?  66.7% very satisfied; 26% satisfied (total of 92.7%)

If you follow the gurus of satisfaction measurement, a single question stands out from the rest.  Customers may be happy, but would they act on that confidence in their vendor?  To the question, “Would you recommend LVM Systems to other organizations?”  95.9% answered “Yes.”  According to Les Mortensen, LVM’s founder and president, “Many of our new clients contacted us as a result of meeting or networking with a satisfied LVM customer.”

For more information, call 480-633-8200 x223 or email Robert Cluff at robert@lvmsystems.com.

Startel Launches SMS Services

Startel Corporation, a provider of call center software, announced that they have been conducting successful beta tests of a new SMS aggregator service; it was launched on October 16.  Two versions of the service will be available: one fully integrated into the award winning Startel CMC platform and the other for customers utilizing other call center solutions.

SMS is synonymous with “texting” or “text messaging.”  The popularity of SMS has grown dramatically over the last several years, and it is estimated that 75% of cell phone users send text messages daily.  Utilized initially as a consumer application, the proliferation of SMS as an alternative business communication has increased dramatically over the last year and is becoming an essential part of the fully integrated business communications platform utilized by call centers worldwide.

“We are pleased to offer our customers a more robust, reliable, lower cost, more easily implemented and maintained, and more fully integrated service,” stated Bill Lane, CEO and president of Startel Corporation.  “Because Startel’s SMS Service is a pure software solution, the reliability is phenomenally high, and the total cost of ownership is greatly reduced.” 

Contact Shamess Twardy at 949-863-8796 or shamess.twardy@startel.com for more information.

OnviSource Announces OnviNet Portica, Call Center Unified Communication Platform

OnviSource announced the roll out of OnviNet Portica Unified Communications Platform.  Portica is an affordable multi-media and integrated call center communications platform that optimizes messaging and automates call handling.  It optimizes call center messaging through integrated voicemail, email, 2-way SMS, fax, and dispatch.  It also automates call center call handling through features such as auto-dialers, Intelligent Call Distributor (ICD), and Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

Portica is integrated with the OnviCenter suite of Workforce Optimization and Automation (WFO-A) software solutions for call recording, quality assurance, screen capture, speech analytics, and workforce management applications, as well as agent automation capabilities and scripted inbound/outbound CRM applications.  Portica extends workforce optimization and automation to agent communications and call handling and is fully integrated with OnviCenter CRM applications.

“OnviSource intends to lead the industry in delivering highly affordable contact center solutions that can not only optimize and automate workforce performance and CRM applications, but also the agent and call center inbound-outbound communications,” explained John Hird, vice president of product marketing for OnviSource.  “Portica delivers a unified platform for end-to-end communication optimization and automation for the contact center workforce.”

1Call Online Training Receives High Marks

The 1Call Division of Amtelco recently held a series of online training sessions.  1Call customers had the opportunity to attend sessions from their own offices while listening to the presentation on their phone and watching on their computers.  The sessions included:

• “Intelligent Series Scripts” led by Amtelco’s Michael Quimby and Stacey Olson, along with Melinda Keltner from the University of Kansas Medical Center

• “Remote Operators and Operator Training” by Heidi Skokut from Aurora Medical Center

• “H1N1 Pandemic Call Center Planning” by Betty Bouchie from Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre

• “What’s New” by Amtelco’s Kevin Beale

• “Web On-Call Scheduling” led by Julie Clark of Mayo Clinic Hospital

Comments from attendees included:

• “The online demonstrations were great and they were explained step-by-step which made it easy to follow.  The voices were as if they were in the same room.  Very well done!”

• “Very informative,” and

• “Was interesting to get a customer’s perspective.  Excellent information and well worth the time.”

Attendees said they would attend future online seminars, because of “budget constraints, and increased attendance from all of our leadership team.”

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

Seventh Annual National Telehealth Conference Dates Announced for 2010

Children’s Physician Network (CPN) will again host this annual national meeting focused on telephone care.  The conference will be Thursday and Friday, September 30-October 1, 2010, at Hilton Hotel in Bloomington (St. Paul/Minneapolis area), Minnesota.

The conference will continue to offer the same number of CEUs as in 2009 but in a condensed time format; the number of days has been reduced from three to two to help with attendees’ costs and time commitments.

The conference is for an audience of nurses and physicians focused on emergent, urgent, and/or telephone care.  Also, this conference will be of value to office and call center triage nurses, physicians, and administrators.  Further details concerning topics, continuing education credits, and nationally known speakers will be announced in early 2010.

The Hilton Hotel MSP Airport/Mall of America will again be the location.  Free shuttle transportation to and from the airport, as well as the Mall of America, is available for the convenience of attendees.

For more information, email cpn@childrensmn.org.

Ambs Call Center Integrates with Notifi Critical Test Result Management System

Ambs Call Center and HIT Application Solutions have successfully developed bidirectional integration between the HIT Notifi critical test result management application and the Ambs Call Center medical call center software.

Notifi is an alerting system used by healthcare institutions to contact clinicians when a critical test result is received.  Notifi satisfies the Joint Commission’s 2nd Patient Safety Goal, which is to improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers.  When an alert is created by Notifi, Ambs Call Center’s software provides the most up-to-date clinician contact information, including on-call and escalation communication preferences.

Ambs Call Center is a provider of medical call center services offering health systems and clinics proven ROI and improved patient satisfaction.  Service offerings include physician referral, class registration, physician answering service, and switchboard outsourcing.  “It’s our most recent example of combing our medical call center expertise with cutting edge technology to improve our healthcare clients outcomes and reducing their cost to deliver services,” stated Andrew Ambs, vice president of operations.  HIT Application Solutions provides healthcare information technology application development and consulting.

AAACN Announces Telehealth Track for Annual Conference

The American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) will hold its annual conference on May 4-7, 2010, at the Riviera Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The conference includes several telehealth sessions, such as:

• “Can Your Call Center use LEAN Six Sigma?”

• “Motivational Interviewing Techniques in the Telehealth Arena”

• “NEW Telehealth Standards”

• “Implementing Evidence-Based Telehealth Nursing: A Research-Based Collaborative Approach”

• “Telepractice Training Program Evaluation: How to Validate Your Work, Maximize Training Value, and Demonstrate Return on Investment to Your Corporate Stakeholders”

• “Lessons Learned from Telephone Triage Litigation:  Tips to Assure Quality Care”

• “Telehealth Nursing Practice Special Interest Group Meeting”

For more information, call 800-262-6877.

New Regulations for Pre-Recorded Messages

Michele Shuster, of MacMurray, Petersen & Shuster LLP, reminds call centers that on September 1, 2009, the FTC’s prohibition against sending pre-recorded solicitation messages without the express written consent of the call recipient became effective.  This new requirement, contained in the FTC’s amended Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), does not apply to healthcare messages, as well as purely informational messages or calls made by entities exempt from the TSR.

Bluevolt Updates H1n1 Training for the Workplace: “Swine Flu and You”

BlueVolt updated its free H1N1 online course, “Swine Flu and You.”  The course is a quick way to teach people how to reduce their exposure to the H1N1 virus in the workplace.

Responding to the need for a credible, useful source of workplace flu prevention information, BlueVolt provides this interactive, 15-minute course available free at http://go.bluevolt.com.  The course was originally released at the onset of the H1N1 outbreak and was recently updated to reflect the most current understanding and recommendations.  It collects relevant material from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other sources, presenting information in a useful, streamlined format focused on reducing the spread of H1N1 at work.

“As we enter the prime flu season, it is important for businesses to proactively provide a healthy work environment that helps employees prevent illness,” said Don Spear, CEO of BlueTech.  “We updated our free course to make sure everyone can conveniently benefit from this important information.” 

“Swine Flu and You” delivers current, useful instruction applied to every-day business scenarios.  The course includes information on employer responsibilities and a prescribed course of action to respond to the flu epidemic.

Amtelco Receives Patent for Dynamically Creating Records

The 1Call Division of Amtelco announced the receipt of U.S. patent 7,593,962 for “A System and Method for Dynamically Creating Records.”  The new patent encompasses using a script to pull information from a database using a dynamic link, such as automatically entering a patient’s address when the operator enters the patient identification number on an Infinity IS script.  Working in the opposite direction, this process can also be used to add information to a database using a dynamic link, such as automatically adding a caller’s name, address, and phone number, for example, to Amtelco’s CMI contact management database when an operator enters the information on an IS script. 

“This seamless transfer of data provides our customers with concrete savings in training time and every call that comes into the healthcare facility,” said Amtelco President Tom Curtin.  “The ability to dynamically create contact databases as operators take calls offers unlimited potential.”

This patent is the twenty-eighth patent received through the leadership and innovation of Amtelco that started with the first patent in 1954. 

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

Home Telehealth Limited Forms Health Links with China

Home Telehealth Limited, a UK provider of telehealth solutions and disease management services, has set up of a primary healthcare project in Chongqing, China to collaborate and cooperate in the development of primary healthcare systems, including the professional development and training of healthcare staff and staff exchange programs to Chongqing.

The Chinese Government's recently announced a policy statement on “Deepening Healthcare System Reform,” with a budget of $124 billion dollars, seeks to build a health clinic in each of the country’s 700,000 villages.  The population of Chongqing is 32 million and Home Telehealth Limited is seen to be a provider of innovative solutions to implementing elements of this program.