Large organizations with a lot of operational and logistical pieces can find it difficult to deliver consistent customer contact experiences due to their unique specialties and contact needs. Such was the case with Robert Wood Johnson Health System –now RWJBarnabas Health– which operates multiple acute care hospitals, a children’s specialized hospital, and a medical school and cancer institute affiliated with Rutgers University. Read on and discover how INI helped the health system deploy a successful, standardized outbound appointment-reminder solution, and consolidate inbound patient contact.
The several independently-operated institutions of RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH) used different platforms and processes for scheduling appointments; offering patients, who often had contact with multiple RWJBH divisions, an inconsistent and sometimes confusing experience. Most of the scheduling processes were manual, requiring trained staff spend valuable time calling and faxing patients instead of working on more critical tasks. The manual process also meant patient calls only took place during regular business hours, when staff was on-site. Unfortunately, calls on weekdays between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. don’t always align with patient availability, which meant too often no real contact was made with patients, leading to too many missed appointments.
In addition to proactive patient outreach issues, the RWJBH divisions each had their own inbound telephone numbers for scheduling appointments. The telephone systems at the different hospitals were not uniform, and because the divisions operated independently, there was no ability to transfer to one of the others when needed. Decision-makers determined that the inconsistent inbound and outbound customer experience wasn’t working and needed to be addressed.
RWJBH developed a strategic Patient Access Plan to address the issues. The plan called for creation of a unified contact center with one inbound telephone number for all the divisions. There would be one number for patients to call, and the contact center would be able to provide a consistent customer experience, regardless of which division the patient needed to schedule an appointment. Of utmost importance, the centralized system would also offer the ability to schedule appointments across the entire health system. RWJBH turned to SPS for recommendations and integration expertise.
SPS recommended the Inisoft Syntelate desktop agent for unified inbound calls and transfers. The system equipped RWJBH call agents with the patient information they would need, regardless of the call type.
For proactive, automated, outreach to patients for appointment confirmations and reminders, RWJBH selected, the Avaya Proactive Outreach Manager (POM) platform with INI Messenger™. POM enabled outreach via telephone call, text or e-mail, according to the patient’s preference, while INI Messenger offers call recipients a greater number of options and interactivity.
While a POM-generated call using only the Avaya standard dialog components can play a message or automatically transfer the call to an agent, RWJBH wanted a more interactive experience. INI Messenger gave patients more action options to choose from, such as noting how they would receive their next reminder, or requesting transfer to a scheduler.
Results
Adopting Avaya POM automated appointment reminders and confirmation calls has lowered the number of cancellations and missed appointments. Its ability to run both during and outside regular business hours has helped to ensure patient contact is made. Additionally, it has freed up medically trained staff to focus on their craft, rather than making calls and leaving voice messages about upcoming appointments; improving staff morale and work efficiency. INI Messenger’s ability to give patients more options to fit their needs and desires has helped RWJBH deliver a patient outreach experience that is smoother and more consistent, while ensuring patients have the ability to personalize options and get access to the information they need. The health system is happy with the results so far and is considering offering patients additional response options and outbound communications for things such as procedure preparation messages and directions to the facility.
By centralizing inbound calls for each of its divisions to one contact center, RWJBH has simplified and smoothed its patient contact experience. The health system has reduced patient confusion about which number to call. The centralized system also enables RWJBH to establish one set of customer engagement processes, and train staff to ensure customers consistently get the very best experience possible.
Improvements include:
- Less staff-initiated manual phone calls
- Improved patient satisfaction and less confusion
- Improved employee morale and efficiency
- Fewer missed appointments
- Fewer cancellations
Contact INI today for more information on how an outbound notification solution can benefit your organization.