Leveraging the Power of Scripted Call Navigation in a Hospital Call Center

“Easily guiding operators through call processing and data collection”

1Call has hundreds of hospitals using the Infinity call center system to process calls. Many of these users are starting to see the value of using the power of Infinity's Scripted Call Navigation for intelligent data collection. Similar to using a GPS that guides us to our destination, Infinity Scripted Call Navigation easily guides operators through the entire process of handling each caller's needs and collecting the data that your organization needs.

Simplified Set Up

Scripted Call Navigation is not only a powerful call processing tool, but it is completely customizable by the user. Starting with the basic scripts that are included, you can add exactly the information they need, such as protocols, detailed up-to-the-minute information, and external database integration that is unique to your healthcare organization. These tools empower you to create scripts on-the-fly or easily modify a script to be more user-friendly for operators and to increase efficiency and reduce errors. The drag-and-drop script elements make it easy for you to master the script creation process and make it as “fancy” as you'd like.

Built-In Scripted Call Navigation Tools

The 1Call Infinity Scripted Call Navigation uses built-in intelligence and one-stop-shop integration tools to give your operators everything they need to process all the types of call they handle during a shift. These tools include:

• Spell checker
• Zip code look-up
• Credit card formatting
• Valid e-mail verification
• On-call and departmental schedules
• Contact methods based on time of day and day of the week
• Free-form palettes
• Web integration
• Data security tools

Easily Create Scripts

In addition to the included scripts, 1Call customers can access a script library, provided by 1Call, to help them easily build the customized navigation scripts they need. Completed scripts can also be uploaded to the library, for use by other 1Call customers.

Uses in a Hospital Call Center

Code calls, physician-to-physician, and patient-to-physician referral are a few of the many examples of call types that are currently using 1Call's Scripted Call Navigation to streamline call processing, collect pertinent data, eliminate errors, and also keep the customers happy.

When using Scripted Call Navigation, operators only see the information they need to successfully navigate though the particular call they are currently handling. By presenting the proper data to the operators, you reduce the time it would take them to sort though binders, note pads or access external data sources to find exactly what was needed at a particular point during a call. Thus, time is saved, errors are reduced, and operator training time is slashed substantially.

Because of the many benefits, and taking advantage of Web-based Scripted Call Navigation, it's easy to see how scripts can easily be used – by operators in the call center, online by staff, and even online by patients – to handle needs for other departments in an organization, such as Class Registration, Patient Registration, as a smart forms template and as a general “intelligent” data collection and navigation tool.

Matt Everly is the marketing director for Amtelco’s 1Call healthcare division and can be reached at maeverly@1call.com

Technorati Tags: Hospital call center,operator services,scripted call navigation,hospital switchboard,code calls,AMTELCO,1Call,physician referral,agent call scripting,call branching,inbound call processing,healthcare

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This blog is sponsored by 1Call, a Division of AMTELCO

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1Call Introduces Secure Paging and Messaging

McFarland, WI - The 1Call Division of AMTELCO is pleased to announce the new 1Call Secure Paging and Messaging solution, helping healthcare organizations meet HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act) requirements to help keep patient data secure by sending encrypted messages using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security protection.

1Call’s Secure Paging and Messaging solution encrypts text messages sent to a BlackBerry®, iPhone®, iPad™, or Droid™ mobile device. It also provides an encrypted message delivery receipt to record that the mobile device has received the message, and an encrypted message read receipt to note that the user has read a received message. The Secure Paging and Messaging solution also automatically encrypts a reply!

AMTELCO President Tom Curtin commented, “This essential function will not only ensure that each patient’s data is kept secure, but also simplifies the communication process for physicians, Web users, and operators. The various layers of encryption will also keep Web users and operators informed of the status of the response for detailed tracking purposes.”

For more information 1Call’s Secure Paging and Messaging, contact 1Call at (800)225-6035, e-mail info@misecuremessages.com, or visit https://misecuremessages.com/.

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This blog is sponsored by 1Call, a Division of AMTELCO

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1Call Integrating Social Media with RED ALERT Notification System

As the number of hospitals and healthcare organizations continue to embrace social media increases system developers and vendors need to adapt as well. AMTELCO’s 1Call Division as taken the next step toward helping their customers by integrating with social media outlets.

1Call’s RED ALERT system allows messages and notifications to be sent to a few or a large group of recipients based on a particular disaster, incident, event or changing condition. In the past when an alert was triggered, messages were sent to pagers, email addresses, mobile phones (sms or voice), fax machines or land-line phones. Recently our developers used the Twitter application programming interface (API) as a bridge to incorporate some popular Social Media outlets as part of RED ALERT’s message delivery capabilities. Now hospital and healthcare organizations using RED ALERT can not only notify first responders, but it can also deliver information to their Twitter, Blog and Facebook followers when alerts are triggered.

Social Media has been used in the past to keep people informed during events. As an integrated part of RED ALERT, administrators can use RED ALERT as a single point to post messages or share information with Social Media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook as well as send messages to traditional communication devices. Integrating Social Media with traditional platforms will help our hospital customers communicate with many more people than in the past. Now, events such as changing weather conditions, flu season information, disasters, health news, wellness class information and emergency room wait times can be handled by RED ALERT and the Social Media integration to get information to anyone that wants it, and from whatever source they choose to receive it from.

 

For More information on RED ALERT visit http://www.redalertsystem.com/, call 800.380.7345 or send an email to info@redalertsystem.com.

Matt Everly is the marketing director for Amtelco’s 1Call healthcare division and can be reached at maeverly@1call.com

Technorati Tags: Emergency Notification System,Alerts,Notifications,Responders,Disaster,Response,AMTELCO,1Call,RED ALERT,Social Media

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1Call Introduces OnTeam Scheduling and Instant Messaging Tool

1Call introduced OnTeam Scheduling, an advanced workforce-scheduling module that automatically and quickly creates complex schedules.  This module generates the elaborate schedules needed for each department, helping ensure staff members are scheduled at the appropriate times each day.  It features simplified setup, with custom shifts and custom rules that work together to quickly create the detailed schedules.  For example, a nurse scheduled for a 24-hour on-call shift on Monday can be automatically scheduled off on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The flexibility of the shifts and rules makes it easy to meet each department’s unique scheduling requirements.

Amtelco president Tom Curtin said, "With a single click, the OnTeam Scheduling module saves an amazing amount of time.  Knowing that it can take two people as many as three days to manually schedule a single department each month, the days and hours of time saved is truly astonishing."  The module is Web-based, and integrates with Microsoft Outlook calendars, giving users convenient access.  It functions as a stand-alone module, and integrates with 1Call Infinity systems.

1Call also introduced the new Infinity IS Messenger to provide real-time chat capabilities for a number of 1Call applications, including Infinity telephone agent, soft agent, Infinity IS supervisor, and the MiteyMite desktop application.   With IS Messenger, operators can send and receive instant text chat messages with supervisors, other operators, and MiteyMite users.  IS Messenger also allows MiteyMite users to chat directly with other MiteyMite users.  Conversations can be held with one individual or multiple participants.  Each chat is displayed in a separate window, allowing users to easily switch between conversations.

When used with the Infinity IS Directory View Action, operators can screen calls for individuals, using IS Messenger to announce the call and receive immediate instructions.  Complete message histories, including both sides of a chat, are maintained for all conversations.  "Chat is such an accepted manner of communications," Curtin stated, " that it only makes sense to apply chat to MiteyMite in the healthcare market as another way to communication with personnel in real time."

For more information contact 1Call at 800-225-6035, info@1call.com, or www.1call.com.

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Appointment Scheduling in Today’s Call Center

By Ken Marty

March 2010

Almost all businesses require some type of appointments, and call center businesses are no exception.  What is an appointment, anyway, but just a complex way to look at a schedule?

In the “old days” before the personal computer, you bought the time-tested appointment book – or even a simple notebook or binder – and promptly started taking appointments, writing down names and blocking out time with a combination of Xs, slashes, and arrows.  Of course, it was always full of eraser marks, Wite-out (remember that stuff?), and the everlasting coffee ring when the book was used as a coaster several times during the day.

At the end of the day came the unbelievable delivery of this information to the customer, probably making copies and either faxing them off or storing them until the client picked them up, or even worse, trying to relay all of the newly acquired appointment information over the phone.

Today things are not all that much different, but there are better methods to achieve the same result in our more professional, twenty-first century world.  The same information still needs to be recorded, changes still need to be made, and the delivery of information still must take place.  Recording the information has become much more complex, but the end result increases efficiency at least twofold.  I have yet to see the elimination of the coffee ring, but at least with these more modern methods the client won’t have to see it.

What information needs to be collected?  There are two kinds: information about the shift and information about the resources involved.  The shift is a no-brainer; it’s the start time and end time (or the start and duration of the appointment).  The resources, on the other hand, tend to take on a life of their own.

Normally, everyone thinks of the resource as a person or some contact, but that’s not always the case.  The resource may represent needed equipment, another vendor, or a customer, but the resource might also be the location where the appointment will occur.  This will all depend on what your client requires.  An appointment can include multiple resources, but it must include at the least one – otherwise, what’s the point?

The resource can and will become a more complex issue when you start factoring in items such as vacation time, sick time, and whether or not to allow double-booking.  Taking that one step further, each resource probably will need several ways to be contacted.  Of course, once you start talking about how to notify someone it always leads to some hierarchy of how and when he or she needs to be reached; such as, “Call my cell first.  If I don’t answer, call me at home, but always send me an email and text me twenty-four hours before the appointment.”

Therefore, you can see that the shift element of an appointment is quite simple and straightforward; it’s the resource who has become accustomed to using a cell phone, BlackBerry, or a Web browser that needs to be won over and probably will prove to be the biggest headache for you.  But it’s that resource who pays the bill, so you have to deal with it.

Once an appointment is taken, it can lead to another issue: whether to also book a “recurring” or “follow-up” appointment days, weeks, or months in advance.  This makes it imperative for the appointment-scheduling package to be equipped with flexible searching options in order to quickly and precisely determine the next available open appointment.

Then there’s the issue of how appointment changes are made.  We’d all like to think that things are written in stone and will never change, but the fact is that everything changes.  With today’s technology, changes are more global than ever.  Everyone has access to the Internet – these days, who doesn’t have a cell phone with Internet access?

A cancellation or appointment change should alert all parties involved in real time so adjustments can be made with everyone on the same page.  This could be performed by allowing each party to confirm or deny a change request with the click of a button, a response to a text message, or a simple “yes/no” to an IVR announcement.  If an appointment is canceled, the resources from another scheduled appointment, whether later in the day or week, could be contacted with the opportunity to move to an earlier time, all without human interaction.

The final step of the appointment-scheduling process is the delivery of information.  The appointment schedule is really geared to being the input mechanism of the process.  For a total solution, it needs to take advantage of other systems such as IVR calls, SMS or email messages, or even Web site.

IVR, SMS, and email are excellent ways of communicating with customers and receiving feedback to be applied to appointments.  A Web site is really the icing on the cake by providing anyone in the know with the ability to make changes or see at a glance when the next appointment occurs.

There are many Web-based appointment-scheduling packages available today, but finding one that integrates well with an existing call center system is the trick.  A Web-driven appointment schedule empowers clients to handle their day-to-day business.  It can provide different views of the schedule (daily, weekly, monthly) plus the ability to handle any changes a client would like to make, all in real time.  It can even provide the client with the ability to run reports against their appointment schedule or, even better, to see at a glance confirmed or cancelled appointments.  Moreover, the best part is that the capability is provided by the call center and is tied directly to their account.

Appointment scheduling will never be a one-size-fits-all part of life.  Each client is going to want it done their way and will expect different options.  Clients really don’t care how the technology works; they’re more focused on the services provided to them.  That’s where a call center has the opportunity to distinguish itself from its competition by providing additional services with appointment scheduling, such as IVR reminders and confirmations, SMS text, and email notifications.

Ken Marty is a software engineer at Amtelco and was the principal designer of Amtelco’s several scheduling solutions for call centers.

This article is from the March 2010 version of Connections Magazine. A pdf version of the issue can be found at Connections March 2010

Technorati Tags: 1Call,AMTELCO,Call Centers,Appointment Scheduling,Connections Magazine

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Scripting a Better Work Environment for Your Agents

 

By David Michael Drenk

“Hal, can you transfer me to Dr. Smith?”

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Attitudes about message scripting differ in the call center industry. Some call center managers and business owners want to make sure each call is scripted so tightly that there is no room for agents to make mistakes, but others don’t want to limit their agents’ ability to make decisions and deal with unusual situations.

Some clients require a strict protocol without deviation, but if you are a manager who considers your employees your biggest asset, you have the right idea. Fortunately, message scripting can actually make your agents’ lives easier in many ways without hindering their ability to use their skills.

Computers are great, but they aren’t as great as people. A blog or a photo posted on Facebook and emailed to an ever-growing list of friends doesn’t beat a one-on-one conversation. Callers may not have time to chat about the weather when they contact your call center, but they do want someone to listen to what they have to say. Message scripting doesn’t have to be used to feed agents every line of a conversation; it also can be used in much simpler ways.

With scripting software, you can use “required” and “non-required” fields to control just how much of a message is scripted. If you make the important fields “required,” agents know which pieces of information a client insists upon, like a callback number or the caller’s last name, even if you aren’t dictating the whole conversation. This makes life easier for the agents because they are reminded when they skip a crucial field.

Scripts also can be used to validate data, such as making sure that a phone number isn’t missing any digits, an email address is in the correct format, or the number of items in an order isn’t outside of the minimum or maximum limit. Scripts can be designed to display helper text that lets agents know immediately when entries are invalid so the correct information is gathered while the caller is still on the phone.

“Hal, can you tell me who’s on-call?”

“I’m sorry, Dave. I don’t have enough information.”

Besides guiding the agent, message scripting can provide the agent with resources. Scripts can automatically pull information from Automatic Number Identification (ANI), directories, on-call schedules, and databases based on which number is being called, the time of day, caller responses, or options selected by the agent. These tools give agents information about the caller and your clients without making them take time to find it.

Scripts can present a client’s status or display information about who is on-call without making agents go to an on-call schedule. The message script can use this information to control what steps are taken, but it also can simply display the information so agents can use it in whatever way applies.

Another useful scripting tool is advanced data handling. Message scripting can handle complex math formulas, data comparisons, text manipulation, and date and time functions. Use scripts to total order quantities, apply discounts, calculate sales tax, and set the time for a callback reminder.

Why risk offending callers by asking their age when you can ask for their birth date and have the script determine if they are under 18 or over 65? Moreover, why not tell agents if the office is open instead of having agents compare the time to the office hours? If the office is in another time zone, your agents don’t need to remember to add or subtract an hour if the script does it for them.

Advanced data handling can save your agents a lot of time and let them focus on the caller.

“Hal, has the address of the Kansas office changed?”

“Dave, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Remember the impression the Land of Oz made on Dorothy when she stepped out of her black-and-white house? How about adding a little color to your agents’ lives? A powder-blue background can let agents know which client accounts require extra care, and colored-coded text to distinguish between client information and dispatching instructions can make their jobs easier.

Agents often feel insulted when every piece of critical information is displayed in flashing red print. However, if your agents know every time something new is added to an account it will be in forest-green text for three weeks, they’ll watch for that and won’t get stuck in a routine. Combine colors with calculations and you won’t have to tell agents that the client is gone for the day; the violet message box will say it without words.

“Hal, what if this had been an emergency?”

“Dave, quite honestly, I wouldn’t worry myself about that.”

Branching is a powerful scripting tool that can change the fields or information displayed based on a variety of conditions. If your message forms have labels like, “If yes, list why,” or, “If an emergency, get location,” you could use some branching. Scripting makes it easy to compare a caller’s response to a list of results, perform certain actions on specific days and at specific times, or simply display information relevant to the reason for the call.

Branching can be used to change the call flow, but in a less stringent way, it also can be used to simplify the information presented to agents. If you have a list of information that only needs to be gathered in emergencies, don’t make your agents sift through it on every call. Tie it to a button or a “yes or no” option, making it available to agents only when they need it.

Message scripting doesn’t have to be used to control your agents. Message scripting can be used to make their jobs easier without taking away their ability to use their talents. The tools are available to make a better work environment for your agents and better interactions with your callers.

“Hi, Dave, this is Krista. Sorry, Hal doesn’t have the best people skills. Dr. Smith is in surgery, but Dr. Johnson is covering for him. Do you want me to transfer you to Dr. Johnson, or would you like me to email your contact information to the office?”

“Go ahead and email my contact information. And thanks, Krista. It was nice talking with you.”

David Michael Drenk is a technical writer for Amtelco, where he writes software manuals and designs customized message scripts. David also has written for “Event DV” and “Wisconsin Engineer” magazines.

Technorati Tags: Hospital,call center,communications,scripting,amtelco,1call

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Healthcare Intelligent On-Call Schedules-going from paper to a web based system

Many hospitals believe it or not still use a manual paper-based method to create, manage and use on-call schedules that follow doctors and nurses that are on-call for a particular shift. Many of these schedules are assembled by departments and sent to call center or switchboard operators that assemble all of the schedules during the overnight shift. We have worked with hospitals that had over 150 on-call schedules that had to be collated, assembled and bound in folders for the following day. To say that is inefficient is an understatement.

There are two major problems with a paper based on-call scheduling system. First is that as soon as its printed and bound, a change will be made rendering it out of date with incorrect information, meaning all of the distributed binders need to be updated by hand. The second problem is that the information only lives at the location of the binder. If a physician or nurse wants to know their schedule they need to call someone that has a binder or physically email have the information to each person. Both of these problems lead to inefficiency and waste.

By automating your on call scheduling system you solve both of these problems as well as gain functionality that you would never get with a paper based on call scheduling system. Automating your on-call schedules and creating web access you allow departments to create and update their own on-call schedules, allow physicians and nurses to view their schedules virtually anywhere in the world. Also, you can take advantage of the electronic format which allows paging, calling, emailing, and viewing of on-call schedules from any web-enabled device. 

Our customers have helped us fine-tune our automated on call scheduling package. We have developed dozens of new features since rolling out this product over ten years ago. These features are now a vital part of the daily communications in hundreds of hospitals that use the Intelligent Series on-call scheduling package. Automated on-call scheduling packages have developed over time and are robust with features and most can handle even the most difficult, unique and detailed on-call schedules.

Matt Everly is the marketing director for Amtelco’s 1Call healthcare division and can be reached at maeverly@1call.com

Technorati Tags: healthcare,hospital,call center,communications,on-call scheduling,messaging

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