3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

As health insurance exchanges begin to open nationwide as a result of recent changes in the U.S. health-care sector, customer service technologies – particularly call monitoring solutions – have never been more appropriate for the industry.

In a recent article, Dr. James Merlino, chief experience officer of the renowned Cleveland Clinic and president of the Association for Patient Experience, says excellent customer service has yet to be fully embraced by many hospitals or other parts of the healthcare system.

When it comes to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, call centers will play a key role. Some states will run their own exchanges. In Oregon, for instance, the state is going to run its own exchange, with a health exchange call center.  Agents will answer calls from Oregonians about the options available from the state health exchange. A larger federal exchange will be offered, too.

As these changes come, remember too that hospital customers are different from customers in other sectors, Merlino explains. They do not want to be in the facility.

“The experience is scary, confusing, and they often feel as though no one understands them. Yet often these same patients are made to feel that because healthcare is a necessity rather than a luxury, they aren’t entitled to a superior patient experience. And this is probably the biggest mistake our industry makes,” Merlino said in a statement.

At many hospitals, patient experience focuses on “making and keeping patients happy, which misses the point completely because patient experience is also about a hospital’s philosophy about the delivery of care,” Merlino adds. 

The patients need improved attention and communication. It is likely, then, that third party remote call monitoring will be used to help agents ensure a quality experience every time.

With 3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring, healthcare provider offices and hospitals can improve communication with patients and pay greater attention to their needs and comments. Services can be provided to analyze calls which were recorded on a company’s recording system or which were recorded remotely by a third party service provider. Such a provider can score calls on various criteria, the result of which can then be found via the Web shortly after the call was made.

The need is certainly there given the changes in healthcare coming in the United States. The new Medicare-required Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, for example, asks patients about quality of communication with doctors, communication with nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, and communication about medicines.

This year, close to $1 billion of Medicare reimbursement is contingent upon the results of the survey, and quality of care data.

In addition, a Health Leaders survey showed that 36 percent of those responding (which includes top hospital officials, doctors, and nurses) said improving a hospital’s HCAHPS scores is “the main goal of patient experience efforts.”

“Too many patients are going through sometimes life-changing medical procedures in hospitals without those two basic needs [attention and communication] – and rights – being met,” Merlino said.

Attention and communication need to come from doctors and nurses, such as knowing about medications, what they treat, any side effects, and what to do after discharge.

Hospitals need to pay attention and communicate effectively, and there’s little room for excuses.