Podcast: Nortel Discusses How to Use UC to Lower Healthcare Costs

Healthcare isn’t just one of the hottest topics on President Barack Obama’s radar – it actually represents a $2.4 trillion industry.

 

But with the average healthcare worker making two to five times as much as the average call center agent, why is it healthcare organizations don’t spend nearly the amount money that call center managers do to improving their contact centers?  

 

That’s the question that prompted Wes Durow, vice president of Nortel (News - Alert) Enterprise Solutions – a division that made big news today – to talk at length in an interview with Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMCnet, about the new opportunities to reform healthcare through unified communications.  

 

The good news is that most of the new technology and telecommunications equipment available today can actually help organizations improve care while reducing their bottom-line expenses.  

 

Durrow said Nortel is doing a number of new things to help hospitals and other health care organizations with their health-care automation needs. Perhaps the most timely of Durow’s examples of how Nortel is helping out is with the onset of H1N1, also known as the swine flu.

 

According to Durow, Nortel’s partnership with British Telecom supports its ‘Flu line,’ which supports more than 1,500 call center agents that are helping inquisitive consumers deal with flu.

 

“The H1N1 flu is the first global flu pandemic that’s been declared in 41 years,” Durow told Tehrani. “So it is a significant healthcare challenge.”

 

On another flu related-note, Nortel’s networks help support those employees who need to work – but would get their colleagues sick if they showed up to the office.

 

“We’ve built a number of systems so people can work remotely to prevent flu spread,” Durow said.