CIO shows what a service center can do for patient access and experience
New Bedford, Massachusetts-based Southcoast Health – with more than 450 providers in more than 50 locations in southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island – faces the same challenges as other healthcare systems and IDNs: the need to build its patient base, growth growth, revenue and cost control – all while delivering high-quality care and a top-notch patient experience.
Consumers have become more conscious – and picky – about where and how they receive their healthcare services, and they can be difficult customers if the care delivered to them does not meet expectations. They expect convenience, affordability and accessibility.
As evidenced by the description of an upcoming HIMSS24 education session, at least one study has shown that nearly 80% of consumers would seriously consider switching providers if they had a bad experience accessing healthcare services.
That session, The Access Game Changer: The Role of the Service Center and Technologywill be presented next month in Orlando by Southcoast Health Chief Information Officer Jim Feen.
Joined by Russ Onofrio, director of Southcoast Health Service Center, and Sarah Kremer, director of Chartis, Feen will describe how the healthcare system sought to increase patient satisfaction and strengthen its competitive position with an advanced IT service center.
They will describe what such a contact center looks like, what it took to conceptualize, design and build it, what KPIs they use to track its efficacy and progress, how it helps patients engage and quality experiences possible – and what other provider Organizations should consider trying something similar.
We asked Jim Feen a few questions about how the service center for Southcoast has worked and what HIMSS24 participants can learn from his session.
Q. What prompted Southcoast Health to embrace the service center concept?
A. At the height of the pandemic, with so many things in flux and uncertainty, one thing became very clear: our approach to patient call centers was a weakness for our organization. A lot of hard work has gone into supporting our primary care and multi-medical specialty groups over the past decade. This work has led to us having thirty-seven (37!) independently managed call centers supporting specialty areas.
The inefficiencies surrounding this structure were magnified significantly when we were in the thick of launching telehealth and mass vaccination programs. It’s difficult to help patients when you realize that your performance metrics for things like answering a patient call within 30 seconds or abandonment rates are nowhere near a respectable benchmark.
Q. What are some keys to building a successful business?
A. This required the full support of the CEO throughout the village of Southcoast Health. Collaboration and listening to the concerns of Providers and office staff are of paramount importance. Listening to our Patient and Family Advisory Committee was also critical. The last thing we wanted was to intervene and assume that the government had all the answers to solve this problem.
Like most things, this required methodical planning and communication, developing staff and quality programs, evaluating and implementing technology, and establishing a new and experienced leadership structure. Customer experience and call/service center management is a profession and skill that we didn’t have, and figuring this out was an important first step for us.
Q. How has the service center improved access and increased patient engagement and experience?
A. The quality and training program for our service center agents is a crucial ingredient in the recipe. Setting good expectations about the little things, like how to properly address callers/patients, is really important. There is technology behind the scenes that measures interactions and assesses how well our team is doing things from properly verifying patient identity (HIPAA) to thanking patients.
Learning from these interactions had to become part of the culture to positively promote the ideal interactions our patients deserve. These are just a few examples, but this has helped improve call center performance metrics and in many cases nearly doubled performance. It’s a good thing if your service center is testing things like Third Next Available metrics, which project how far, on average, a provider is available for new patient visits or follow-ups.
Q. Has it enabled greater customer loyalty and provided a competitive advantage?
A. This is difficult to assess. Considering that access is very limited for areas like primary care where we currently have waiting lists to get a PCP, an issue that is certainly not unique to Southcoast. What we have streamlined is making sure patients get the appointment they are looking for.
Referral management is a key concern and we need to make sure we don’t leave the patient lying around. We are an integrated healthcare system, so the service center gives us the opportunity to act as one center when it comes to continuity of care and to ensure that we can meet patient needs, while reducing the number of contact points the patient must endure is kept to a minimum. We have made significant progress in this area, which will only increase loyalty.
Q. For other healthcare systems that might be interested in trying something similar, what are some tips for designing and building an effective service center, and ways to track its success along the way?
A. This won’t be a side project that you add to the extensive list that everyone is struggling with. This should be a top priority for the healthcare system and as such should be communicated through your senior team. You need to keep the patient at the center of the design work, while making sure you meet the very unique things required within your specialties to keep it running smoothly.
It is critical to take the time to understand the unique needs of the specialties. You have to prove why this model is more efficient and doesn’t lead to unintentional headaches for the people most dependent on what the service center does: the patients and the caregivers! This provides information about what you need to do in places like your EHR to build decision trees or capture your scheduling system to ensure the right visit types get into your provider’s schedules under the right circumstances.
Having the right progressive call center technologies in place to support this is critical, but should not be the focus of the project. You have limited opportunities to get this right without losing credibility or losing your patients.
“The Access Game Changer: Service Center and Technology’s Role,” is scheduled for Wednesday, March 13, 8:30-9:30 a.m. in room W208C at HIMSS24. More information and registration.
Mike Miliard is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.