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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.
Also, look at the
LVM Systems newsfeed for the latest updates.
LVM Releases Centaurus on .Net Platform
(August 2010)
LVM Systems released its
Centaurus software on Microsoft’s .Net platform, giving LVM customers a choice
on how they want their Centaurus software to function. “We believe Centaurus is
already the top healthcare call center software solution in the industry,” said
LVM Systems’ Vice President of .Net Applications Jake Johnson. “Adding the .Net
platform gives LVM Systems and our customers access to the latest technologies.”
The move to the .Net platform
was three years in the making. It also represents a significant investment in
staffing and resources. “We listened to our customers and other call center
managers,” said Les Mortensen, LVM Systems’ president and chief information
officer. “They said they wanted a .Net option. We made that happen.”
LVM Systems’ Centaurus software
is a customizable solution for healthcare call centers. Centaurus was first
developed in 1988 and has evolved to meet the changing needs of the healthcare
call center industry.
Although it is anticipated that
the .Net version of Centaurus will become the primary choice among new
customers, LVM Systems will continue to provide support to those customers with
the original version. Customers have the option of which platform they want
Centaurus to run on.
LVM
Releases PhoneLink (February 2010)
LVM Systems released PhoneLink, a third-generation
product for automating communication to and from consumers, patients, or plan
members. It integrates touch-tone phone technology with a robust software
database to manage two-way communications, such as:
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surveys (anonymous or identified): satisfaction,
follow-up, health monitoring
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appointment reminders: for appointments,
classes, and upcoming events
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action/behavior reminders: such as medication
compliance, new behavior prompts
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health education fulfillment: including
(inbound) consumer-initiated access of health information topics and
(outbound) push-to-patient instructions and health topics
LVM Systems’ new product is:
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fully-hosted: avoiding the hassles of capital
requests and installation
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expandable: the basic 4-port system can flex to
16-line usage to accommodate peaks in volume through server-sharing.
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vendor neutral: each PhoneLink system is powered
by a complementary license of LVM's SQL software. Your primary call center
software can be any product or none at all. PhoneLink works from the data
supplied by your organization.
PhoneLink is leased at $4,900 per year, plus $0.20
per minute for utilization.
LVM
Changes Pricing for Disease Management Plans (February 2010)
LVM Systems, Inc. announced a change in their
pricing model for disease management care plans. Effective February 1, all
plans are available at no additional cost to LVM customers. This includes heart
failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, diabetes,
coronary artery disease, and medication compliance plans.
According to Les Mortensen, president of LVM
Systems, “The majority of our call center customers have disease and population
management projects on their horizon. It’s a must do for successful healthcare
reform and medical home initiatives. We want our customers to have the
advantage of medically-sound care plans which reference the national guidelines
and support medical standards of care.”
Each care plan contains a stratification tool to
assist care teams in matching the right intensity and frequency to the needs of
each program participant. The plans focus on self-management education and
early identification of health status changes, which are key to avoiding
unplanned care and emergencies. Customers can use the patient education
materials authored by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), which
exist in the LVM software, or they can link to their own materials.
CPM
Chooses LVM Software for National Call Center (February 2010)
LVM Systems’ Centaurus software has been chosen by
CPM Marketing Group, Inc. to enable its national call center, launched January
6, 2010. CPM, a customer relationship management (CRM) and strategic marketing
solutions company, has entered the call center service arena to support inbound
and outbound call marketing services for hospitals and health systems.
The LVM/CPM interface, Instant CRM (ICRM), is a
behavioral targeting technology that enables hospitals to tailor phone
communication to current and prospective patients based on individuals’ past and
present medical indications or their risk for developing future conditions.
Having this ability to communicate at a granular level is invaluable for
relationship building and service line promotion. The ICRM interface provides
critical information to the call center representative both at the beginning of
the call and prior to the end of the call, when cross-selling opportunities are
most advantageous.
LVM Systems Scores Big in
Customer Satisfaction Ratings
(December 2009)
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:
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When interacting with LVM
staff members, which best describes your experience? 70.7% very satisfied;
26% satisfied (total of 96.7%)
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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.”
LVM Systems Opens
Users’ Conference to Industry (August 2009)
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:
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.
LVM Offers Hosted Virtual Call
Center Option
(April 2009)
LVM Systems, a longtime provider of installed call center
software, now offers a fully hosted solution, Virtual Call Center. Their E-Centaurus
software is available for use via the Internet. President Les Mortensen
comments, "We've had this option in use by our own remote staff for nearly seven
years. The challenges of today's healthcare environment create the perfect
opportunity to offer it externally as well."
LVM's sales directors are frequently hearing hospital
managers say, "Our IT folks are so focused on the enterprise EMR launch, it is
difficult to get their attention and support for other information systems."
The Virtual Call Center is accessed via an Internet connection through Windows
Terminal Server, bypassing the need for onsite server purchase and set-up.
The other benefit is economical. Many health systems have a
freeze on capital expenditures, eliminating new licenses, and hardware
purchases, which would normally be capitalized. LVM Systems offers an option to
license the Virtual Call Center on a monthly payment plan, if needed, to avoid
requesting capital dollars. Therefore, software fees can be covered through the
call center's operational budget.
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:
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Its relationship planner/manager function organizes
the steps to each physician strategy, whether growth, retention, or
recruitment.
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In-depth physician relations reporting capabilities
for both representatives and management; custom reports produced monthly at
no additional charge
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Fast documentation of activities, discussions, and
outcomes
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Built-in issue management functionality: identify and
categorize concerns, assign responsibility, manage resolution, and measure
response metrics.
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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:
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"Insurances accepted" for
practices participating in physician referral, and
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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.
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accept_ins
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insurance_name
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inid
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phys_name
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poid
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Y
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Aetna
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AETNA
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Applegate, Diane
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96
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Y
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Blue Cross/Blue Shield
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BC/BS
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Applegate, Diane
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96
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Y
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Cigna Healthplan of Arizona
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CIGNA
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Applegate, Diane
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96
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Y
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Intergroup Healthcare Corporation
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IHC
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Applegate, Diane
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96
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J & J Health Insurance of America
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JJ
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Applegate, Diane
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96
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Kaiser Insurance
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KI
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Applegate, Diane
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96
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Samaritan Group, Inc.
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SAM
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Applegate, Diane
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96
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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.
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