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Streamlined call center going nationwide
By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer
In a matter of months, the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston has centralized and streamlined an understaffed, ineffective patient call center into a system that is so efficient that other VA centers around the country are clamoring to implement it at their locations.
The Centralized Scheduling Unit has improved phone call answer rates for the VA and its community-based outpatient centers from 50% to 90% and has improved customer satisfaction across the board for every clinic using the system, said Steve Johnston, the VA compliance officer who manages the program.
The plan for the scheduling unit grew out of the VA cancellation line, which Johnston said had been trying to keep up with patients trying to schedule, cancel or reschedule appointments.
“We would send a letter to the vet letting him know about the appointment, and if that time wasn’t convenient, he could call to reschedule,” Johnston said. “The problem was that the phone was being answered by clerks in the clinic who were also trying to take care of patients, so the system was not efficient at all. We had a lot of appointments being missed, and that just wasn’t acceptable.”
Rather than implement the system across the entire VA system in Charleston, the program started with the Beaufort Primary Care Clinic.
“Beaufort had the fewest number of calls, so we started with them so we could work the bugs out of the system,” he said.
By the time the Myrtle Beach clinic was added, which Johnston said was “a little bigger with more calls,” the Telephone Assistance Program was incorporated into the system as well.
“The TAP line is for a little more advanced care than just scheduling or rescheduling,”
Johnston said. “This is for someone who might be feeling a little sick or need medication and they need someone to talk to. And instead of phone attendants, we have nurses who answer those lines.”
Today the program includes both call centers, the TAP line with 15 employees and the scheduling center with six employees, handling all calls for the RHJ-VA Medical Center, which includes four clinics and the hospital.
The TAP line takes in more than 800 calls per day and the scheduling center receives more than 600, Johnston said.
“Our call volume is going up exponentially,” said Johnston. “But we’re still showing higher
efficiency ratings. The rate for what we call ‘missed opportunities’ – which is when someone was supposed to show up for an appointment but didn’t and also didn’t reschedule – is greatly improved. So the result is that more people are making their appointments, which means they’re obtaining health care when they should be.”
The next step, he said, is to hire a person to supervise college students to work in the evening to make calls to schedule appointments rather than sending letters to patients. The evening will also be a time for reminder calls for appointments.
As with the scheduling unit, the implementation will be gradual. Johnston’s plans are to begin with a few clinics, check the results and then expand.
“Before now, calls in the evening were redirected to a call center in Dayton, Ohio, and we were geared toward an 8 (a.m.) to 4:30 (p.m.) timeframe,” he said. “But I think it will be much better to use the time in the evening, when the patients are home, to make this program work better.
“Plus, we have all this equipment sitting here idle during the evening. We need to make use of it.”
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