LVM Systems News

LVM Systems, Inc. develops and markets software and related Internet products exclusively in the healthcare call center industry. Their primary niche is solutions that support nurse triage, disease management, and referral and marketing services. They have proudly served this market for 20 years and have hundreds of healthcare organizations as clients.

The company’s cornerstones are comprehensive software (the modular system of E-Centaurus allows clients to purchase what they need and then expand services by upgrading to the next level of functionality), outstanding customer support (when clients call with questions, they reach a seasoned employee who can resolve their issues quickly and professionally), and proven clinical content (their pediatric protocols are provided and supported by Barton D. Schmitt, MD, the renowned expert and pioneer in pediatric telephone triage).

The product team at LVM has more than 25 years experience in software development, the majority of which has been done in close partnership with healthcare call center clients.  The LVM team also provides implementation services, on-site training, phone and remote-access support, network consultation, customization of screens and custom reports.

For more information, contact LVM Systems at info@lvmsystems.com or 480-633-8200 x232.

Marlene Grasser Joins LVM (Aug 07)

Marlene Grasser, RN, has recently joined LVM Systems as their Regional Sales Director for the West.  Ms. Grasser was previously the manager of Evergreen HealthLine, the medical call center sponsored by Evergreen Healthcare in Kirkland, Washington.  Her experience with the HealthLine began in 1993 as a telephone triage nurse.  Convinced of the tremendous benefit the 24/7 triage service offered her community, Grasser remained at Evergreen for the next 14 years.  During her tenure, she helped shape the quality and strength of the triage service and in 2001 took over the reins as manager. 

In 2004, after a thorough vendor evaluation, her team implemented LVM's E-Centaurus software with Weblink.  With the improved technology and support, the call center expanded from 90,000 calls per year to upwards of 150,000 by the end of 2006.  "We had so many opportunities open up to us once we had software that could handle anything we threw at it," she said.  "LVM's character and commitment attracted me." She adds, "When I decided to look for a career that provided more regular hours, LVM was a very natural fit."

LVM Helps to Manage Physician Relations (Jun 07)

LVM Systems released a contact management solution, MPR: Managing Physician Relations.  MPR allows physician liaisons to plan, execute, and track efforts to grow physician referrals while retaining existing relationships.  MPR operates as a stand-alone product, but MPR also fully integrates with LVM's E-Centaurus call center software.  The call center-physician relations synergy leverages a powerful enterprise CRM solution and targets it specifically to the physician audience. 

The benefits of MPR include:

• Its relationship planner/manager function organizes the steps to each physician strategy, whether growth, retention, or recruitment.

• In-depth physician relations reporting capabilities for both representatives and management; custom reports produced monthly at no additional charge

• Fast documentation of activities, discussions, and outcomes

• Built-in issue management functionality: identify and categorize concerns, assign responsibility, manage resolution, and measure response metrics.

• Physician feedback and market intelligence is easily captured.

Physician liaisons can view or print reports on the number of patients directed by the call center to a particular physician.  Conversely, the MPR software can also import and track the volume of patients referred by that physician to the hospital. 

LVM Develops Hospital Transfer Module (Oct 06)

Many university and tertiary care hospitals find themselves in the transfer business.   To address this, LVM Systems partnered with several call centers (both clients and non-clients) to develop a Hospital Transfer module to support this time-sensitive process.  The call-taker captures the sending party's information and logistics, and then conducts a brief interview regarding the patient's condition and needs.  If the receiving hospital has additional requirements associated with the service requested (such as orthopedics, burn unit, NICU), staff receive a visual cue so no items are missed.

Each unique communication within the transfer (often 8 to 10 calls) is tracked within the software's Contact module, with the series of interactions sharing a single Case ID.  The transfer status screen displays each milestone in the transfer process, including what has been completed and by whom.  Then the post-acceptance tracking accounts for all the details of the completed process, including the disposition, transport service, and times of patient departure from the sending hospital and arrival at the receiving hospital.

The Hospital Transfer module is an addition to LVM's E-Centaurus software and is now available.

Using Time Tickets for Non-Call Activities  (Oct 06)

Efficiency, productivity, and utilization are common call center terms for measuring performance and capacity.  But for call center staff, there are many other tasks that fill the day which may go unaccounted.  LVM has recently added a Time Ticket module to its E-Centaurus software to help staff and call center managers understand where the time goes – and account for it correctly.

The time ticket function allows the user to end the call (recording an accurate call length), then add time to the transaction, either immediately following, or later on when time permits.  In this scenario, the time ticket documents additional time spent in fulfillment and categorizes the nature of the additional time for reporting purposes.

Using the Time Ticket function helps staff log additional time associated with fulfillment activities or special projects.  Also, it helps managers understand where time is spent when the software and phone switch reports offer different views of efficiency. 

LVM Develops Absence Management Module (Jun 06)

LVM Systems recently developed an Absence Management module in their E-Centaurus software to support clients who either sell attendance management services to employers or support their own health system's employee health program.   LVM clients can monitor, advise, and report on employee absence.  The absence management program improves tracking, but more importantly, analyzes trends to assist leadership in managing absences proactively.

Employees are instructed to call the Absence Line to report absences, such as sickness, traffic delays, injury, bereavement, doctors' appointments, and so forth.  Call center staff locates the employee record and using the new module, records the employee's answers to a short series of questions, identifying the absence specifics.  If the employee is ill, he or she discusses symptoms with a triage nurse who provides direction and/or symptom management.  An estimated return-to-work date is established and the employee is instructed to either call back each day of the absence or upon his/her return to work.  The return date is recorded to close the episode of absence.  The software segments data by employer and allows managers to access absence reports online by employee, department, division, or corporation. 

LVM Solves On-Call and "Insurance Accepted" Updates (Oct 05)

For healthcare call centers, maintaining accurate physician profile information is paramount.  For call center managers and staff, two data elements seem to cause the greatest frustration:

• "Insurances accepted" for practices participating in physician referral, and 

• On-call schedules, whether used in association with triage or answering services.

Bad data means unhappy patients, callers, and physicians…and disgruntled call center staff.  Call center managers dream of a Web interface that would allow physicians (well, their office staff, anyway) to update their profiles and on-call schedules, shifting the onus to the practices themselves.  However, with this vision comes an aftermath of IS concern, Web security, and firewall protection issues.  Plus, on the physician practice side, would they be able to access the Internet application?  Also, how much training would be required?

LVM Systems has a solution with their E-Centaurus software; it produces a simple Excel form that clearly displays the insurance data or on-call schedule for each physician.  For participating practices, the export process is fully automated and can be scheduled to go out via email in a batch routine. 

The practice simply opens the Excel file, reviews the information, edits it as necessary, saves the changes, and sends it back to the call center.  The Excel spreadsheet can be reviewed first by staff, or saved directly into the data directory.  The E-Centaurus software then automatically updates the on-call schedule or insurance information for each physician.

LVM Puts Schmitt's and Thompson's Protocols Online (Apr 05)

For many years, physicians and their staff have relied on reference books for supporting office-hours and after-hours telephone care.  The long time standard, "Pediatric Telephone Protocols," authored by Barton Schmitt, MD is used by more than 10,000 practices.  "Adult Telephone Protocols," authored by David Thompson, MD is the companion reference used by many family practitioners.  In recent years, requests have grown for an electronic version of these mainstays which would automate protocol selection and provide for quick documentation.

Through an exclusive agreement with LVM Systems, Schmitt's and Thompson's office protocols are now automated by an Internet-based product referred to as D.O.C., or Doctor's Office Calls. It's priced from $500 to $750 per year, per user (based upon the number of users).  The product can be interfaced with LVM's Medical Call Center software, E-Centaurus.  LVM software clients will be able to exchange triage documentation with the physician practices they serve after-hours.

1Call Integrates with LVM eCentaurus (Nov 04)

The 1Call Division of Amtelco announced the integration of their Infinity system to the LVM eCentaurus™ nurse triage software package.  With the Infinity and eCentaurus integration, operators answer calls, gather information from callers, and screen them for nurses.  If the caller needs a callback from a nurse, the operator saves the message in a special Infinity account.  The message is then automatically dispatched to eCentaurus, which presents calls to nurses in the queue, based on priority.

When the call is delivered, information about the call, including the callback number, is displayed.  The nurse uses the eCentaurus screen, with the Infinity Operator Interface Engine, to dial, connect, place calls on hold, page, and patch calls to doctors. 

To complete the call, the nurse presses a button on the eCentaurus screen.  Infinity then stores all of the information about the call, including the callout history, which can be archived and reviewed at any time for quality assurance and billing purposes.  If desired, calls can also be automatically recorded using the 1Call Voice Logger module.