Providing Better After Hours Care to Your Patients

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Providing Better After Hours Coverage Simplifying and Unifying Communications Through Technology

description

These slides were used during the Webley MD webinar, Providing Better After Hours Care. Topics include: key challenges practices face when it comes to providing quality on-call after hours care to patients. Key takeaways: * What’s worked & not worked for other practices * How to increase the cost effectiveness & efficiency of your own after hours care through automated call routing * How to provide better after hours care without increasing staff/physician workload

Transcript of Providing Better After Hours Care to Your Patients

Page 1: Providing Better After Hours Care to Your Patients

Providing Better After Hours Coverage

Simplifying and Unifying Communications Through Technology

Page 2: Providing Better After Hours Care to Your Patients

Some Callers Require Immediate Care

• Patients still require timely clinical advice • Studies have shown that 22% - 44% of after hours calls

involve potentially serious problems.

• Urgent calls are not always forwarded to on-call physicians• According to a study in the Journal of Family Practice, 50%

of calls not forwarded by the answering service to the on-call physician could be classified as needing immediate contact with the physician.

Simplifying & Unifying Communications Through Technology

Page 3: Providing Better After Hours Care to Your Patients

Most ER Visits Occur After Business Hours

0

10

20

30

40

50

Northeast Midwest South West

42.339.4

47.4

29.4

Number of ER visits per 100 persons

Most visits to ER occur after business hours (63% of adults, 72% of children) accordingto the 2006 National Hospital Ambulatory Care Survey. In 2006, there were 119.2 million ER visits in the US.

Simplifying & Unifying Communications Through Technology

Page 4: Providing Better After Hours Care to Your Patients

After Hours Care Challenges for Patients

• Harris Interactive/Commonwealth Fund survey found that 60% of respondents had difficulty getting after hours care without going to an emergency room• Rise of convenient care clinics

• Study found patient satisfaction with after hours care highest for those who spoke or saw their own family physician or visited their own practice’s after hours clinic*

– Compared to patients who visited ER, a walk-in clinic or used a telephone advisory service

• Emergency room wait time averages 4 hours• ER visit costs over $1,000

• Can be the only option for face to face care late at night/early in the morning

• Callers might not receive the proper attention they deserve• Protocols not followed

• Poor customer service

• High turnover

* Howard M, et al. Patient satisfaction with care for urgent health problems: a survey of family practice patients. Ann Fam Med. September/October 2007;5(5):419–424.

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After Hours Care Challenges for Practices

Medical practices we interviewed expressed the following concerns:

• Patients call looking for free advice rather than coming to the practice

• Calls are uncompensated• Most callers do not require an immediate response

• E.g., calling for information, refill request, etc.

• Being on call all the time is stressful• Belief that callers like reaching a live person• Live answering services staffed by medical personnel are expensive

and require detailed protocols• Live answering services not staffed by medical personnel aren’t

much better than message takers• Messages are faxed – cumbersome to distribute

Simplifying & Unifying Communications Through Technology

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After Hours Care Challenges for Practices

Challenge: Uncompensated calls, most callers do not require immediate assistance

• Call routing

• Self-service features

• Call screening

• Option for caller to tag message as urgent

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After Hours Care Challenges for Practices

Challenge: Perceived preference to reach a live person

• Answering service operators• Require detailed protocols

• May not forward caller when the situation requires immediate attention

• Human error

• High turnover

• Variable customer service skills

• Perception vs. reality• Callers are used to automated messages

• Privacy issues

• Accuracy

Webley Confidential

Page 8: Providing Better After Hours Care to Your Patients

Why Should Practices Care about After Hours?

• Your patients would like to reach someone who knows their medical history • Opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your patients

• Increase perceived accessibility and convenience

• Your practice can provide better care than the other alternatives

• Not everything can wait till morning• Your patients’ health is at stake

• Can be a matter of life or death – patients may not realize they need to visit ER immediately

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The Old Way of Handling After Hours Calls

Live answering service* Inconsistent customer service skills, high turnover rates

* Inaccurate message transcriptions

* Offers little more than what an answering machine can provide

* Price typically includes fixed number of minutes, additional minutes billed at a much higher rate

Answering machine/voicemail

* Won’t work if there is an outage

* Risk that box/machine is full & can’t record new messages

* Providing another phone number to call poses an additional obstacle for an anxious patient

* No or limited notification of new messages

Simplifying & Unifying Communications Through Technology

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The Better Way of Handling After Hours Calls

Webley MD After Hours:• Faster, more accurate messages, notifications by pager, phone, e-mail – it’s up

to you• Every call handled courteously and consistently• Caller ID, call screening features• Custom greetings allow you to greet each caller with a familiar voice, record

up to 9 greetings• Lets callers tag messages as urgent• Better call routing. Set up voicemail for different departments/functions,

physicians, etc.• Change on-call status with a quick phone call• Natural language interactions allow callers to state what they want the system

to do. It's as easy as having a conversation.• Our hosted service is monitored 24/7 with backup and disaster recovery

services.• Subscriber based, no equipment to purchase, nothing to maintain

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Key Benefits of Webley MD After Hours

Better Message Management• Better call routing

• Easier, unified message management

• Change on-call status with quick phone call

• Screen all callers

Better Patient Care • Improved communication with patients

• Quicker response time to after hours calls

• Eliminate inaccurate messages

• Hear the patient’s voice message including urgency conveyed in tone of voice

• Never miss or lose an important message

• Ensure continuity of care

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How Webley MD After Hours Works

Physician uploads profile to Webley MD. She’s now

the on-call physician.

Office is closed. Calls are forwarded to Webley MD.

Calls come in. Callers are greeted with custom recorded message.

Urgent calls are sent to on-call physician with call

screening features.

If on-call physician doesn’t answer, new

message notifications are sent to on-call physician.

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Webley MD After Hours Script

“You have reached the office of East Bay Family Medical. Our office is open Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 4 PM. If this is a medical emergency, hang up and dial 911. If you have an urgent medical problem and need to reach the on-call physician, please stay on the line and the on-call physician will be notified of your call. Thank you for calling our office.”

Create your own messages for holidays, weekends, lunch, and so on.

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Typical Mailbox Types

• Corporate 0 Mailbox

• Billing

• Profile login

• Not used to receive or transfer calls

• Department Mailbox

• Practice number is forwarded to this mailbox

• Loading Doctor Profiles

• Message Notification

• Pager Re-Notification

• Profile Mailbox

• Doctor Personal Destinations

• Doctor Call Transfer Setting

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Webley MD After Hours Summary

What happens after your office closes? Webley MD After Hours is there to:

• Replace or supplement your existing after hours service

• Lets you hear and save the patient messages, much faster than an answering service

• Available any time (nights, weekends, holidays, lunch)

• Find and follow me feature to ensure you get the message

• Notify home, office, cell phone, pager, e-mail and more

• Call to quickly change on-call status

• Record your own custom greetings

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Webley Corporate Overview

• Founded In 1997

• Industry Pioneer in Advanced Speech Applications:

• Unified Communications

• After Hours Messaging

• Broadcast Messaging

• 7 Advanced Speech Patents

• 50,000 Active Customers

• Delivering 180,000,000 Transactions Per Year

• Fully Redundant Data Centers

• Numerous Awards For Technology Product of the Year

Webley Confidential

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For additional information:

1-877-7-WEBLEY

[email protected]

Simplifying & Unifying Communications Through Technology