Call Accounting Featured Article

Call Accounting Tools Prove Value in Healthcare

  By Steve Anderson, Contributing Writer

It used to be, reports note, that call recording and similar call accounting tools were eschewed in healthcare settings, usually on the advice of general counsel. Such recordings were “discoverable” in lawsuits, and may well have been used against the healthcare provider in malpractice or similar cases. Like so many things, however, that seems to have changed, and changed in favor of those call accounting and call recording tools, based on word from ISI Telemanagement Solutions.

While legal discovery is still a risk, reports suggest, the risk of not having these recordings is now considered on many fronts to be greater than actually having said recordings. The general counsels and similar legal professionals who once advocated against call recording and other such call accounting tools instead note that recordings are now an excellent way to take blame off a healthcare provider. If the recordings can make clear that correct diagnoses or proper medical orders were dispensed, but a patient died anyway, the patient him- or herself can now be blamed directly, and with proof of proper procedure on the healthcare provider's side. 

The overall change in the healthcare market has brought about this change; with healthcare operations routinely engaging in a variety of contact methods, from screen sharing to video calling to whiteboard and text operations and beyond. With call recording and similar call accounting tools, patients and healthcare providers alike are better able to perform a variety of tasks.

Recordings of office visits help serve as reminders of agreed-upon treatments for patients, as well as the ability for management to spot potential areas that aren't being addressed sufficiently. In much the same way that this works for the contact center, it can work here, and not just for physicians but for billing operations, pharmacy functions, and scheduling operations. Better yet, interactions can be checked at random for HIPAA violations.

Essentially, call recording's value in not just confirming operational protocols but also in confirming that procedures are being properly adhered to. While there's a certain amount of risk in this—most don't like the notion that they're being “watched” at work—there's also a possibility to frame it as a way to improve professional development, particularly if it's not used as a “paper trail” for potential firings. With these tools on hand, healthcare operations can have a clearer run toward improvement.

Call recording and similar call accounting tools represent great value for the user, though it's all in the way these are used. While there's a risk of recordings being used against a healthcare provider, there's too much value in their proper use to ignore readily.