Healthcare Industry

Healthcare Call Center: Why And How To Set Up? 

What Is a Hospital Call Center?

Hospital or healthcare call centers are customer service centers that are either internally attached or affiliated with hospitals.

These establishments generally assist hospitals in dealing with the various inbound calls received by them, pertaining to:

  • Medical appointments
  • Services provided, etc.

They also provide information about the following, by storing the same in a centralized repository:

  • Online messaging
  • Patient demographics
  • Medical records in one place, etc.

Now, specialized healthcare call centers cater to special functions.

They handle not only appointments but also nurse triage and advertising strategies.

In a nutshell, they are multi-departmental and take care of the following:

  • Home telemedicine
  • Home health care services
  • Emergency medical services, etc.

Let us now explore some of the benefits of the medical call center services, which you can avail of in the sections below:

Benefits of Setting Up a Healthcare Call Center

Healthcare call centers are becoming increasingly important for healthcare organizations as they offer numerous benefits to patients and providers, as seen below:

1. Improved Patient Satisfaction

Though patient satisfaction is a crucial factor, quite a few medical call centers fail to treat their patients as ‘customers’.

This negligence contributes to fewer hospital visits, which leads to a slump in operations.

A good healthcare call center service serves patients in the following ways:

  • Takes time to understand your issues
  • Regularly follows up to know your response

Tip: You don’t want your patients to flee before even visiting, do you? So, to start with, do not put forth a robotic set of questions. More than being caring, be willing to listen, as this makes the patient comfortable enough to explain their ailment better.

​​ 2. A Centralized Communication System

A centralized communication system in healthcare call centers can:

Improve patients’ access to care
Minimize wait times
Boost their healthcare experience

3. Better Patient Engagement

Large healthcare systems require a transparent patient access experience.

The first step towards the same with respect to patient-doctor engagement is an appointment.

Without an effective centralized call center, patients have to make multiple calls or are routed from one department to another, which can contribute towards their negative experience.

Call centers thus improve patient engagement by providing them with a simplified solution that enables patients to get appointments easily.  

They do so with the help of advanced technology like cloud telephony. 

With the help of this technology, they use calling and texting to communicate seamlessly with customers throughout their journey.

Tip: Go the multi-channel way. The majority of patients look for counseling over the phone. You can provide medical care via texting or SMS as well. Emails and live chats to provide instant medical guidance too are now gaining prominence.

4. Patient Management & Follow-up Efficiency

We all are aware of how chaotic patient management is in large healthcare systems. This is because it encompasses two vital aspects:

Pre-appointment
Post-recovery services

Moreover, more than half of the patients who have been prescribed a follow-up visit fail to turn up.

For instance, when patients feel that the symptoms have subsided, they are reluctant to take up the pain of applying for an appointment and paying for another visit.

Healthcare call centers can improve the efficiency of healthcare providers by offloading routine administrative tasks and allowing them to focus on patient care.

They can do this by getting their call center agents to make outbound follow-up calls for the following:

  • Appointment reminders
  • Pre-visit appointments
  • Post-discharge follow-up
  • Medical stock inquiries
  • Treatment satisfaction

5. Optimized Call Center Efficiency

An efficient medical call center:

  • Gives weightage to all departments and staff
  • Delivers 24*7 support via its agents

Call centers thus distribute the workload equally across patient care teams, taking into account the department’s frequency of incoming calls.

6. Reduced Turnover & Alleviated Nursing Staff

One of the aspects of running a healthcare call center is the costs involved in:

  • Searching for talented staff members
  • Hiring them after rigorous interviews
  • Onboarding and training them

However, owing to your contact center software, your staff members’ efficiency is increased, which in turn reduces your staff turnover rate as well.

7. Increased Patient Referrals

Often, it becomes very cumbersome for patients or their attendees to wander around in search of specific departments or specialty doctors.

In such cases, having a physician or specialist who is attending to a 24*7 physician referral service is quite useful.

Pharma call centers strengthen physician referrals by building strong relationships with local employers and provider groups.

They encourage patients for timely revisits. As for patients, they can call and specify their preferences for finding a doctor, such as availability, specialty, or gender.

A medical call center’s main goal is to improve and streamline communication among the following groups of people who are involved in a patient’s care: 

  • Primary care physicians
  • Specialists
  • Health providers

However, the call center should also be proficient enough to trace out-of-track patient referrals to prevent patient leakage and revenue loss.

8. Better Patient Outcomes

Healthcare call centers can lead to better patient outcomes by providing timely access to medical care and resources, as patients who receive prompt care are less likely to require readmissions.

9. Cost Savings

Healthcare call centers are a cost-effective solution for organizations looking to enhance their services without significant investments in infrastructure and staff. 

​​How to Set Up a Medical Call Center

Establishing a coherent and centralized healthcare call center is crucial in catering to diverse medical issues.

Here are some steps to assist you throughout the process:

1. Determine Call Center Goals

Define the purpose of your healthcare call center, that is, is it for:

The goals of the call center, such as the ones mentioned below, should align with the overall goals of the healthcare organization:

  • Improve patient satisfaction
  • Increase patient engagement
  • Reduce readmission rates, etc.

After all, clearly defining clear goals will help you measure your call center’s success and make necessary improvements to achieve the set goals.

2. Choose the Right Technology

An efficient call center software is a must-have for healthcare call centers.

That is because it:

  • Helps manage high volumes of patient calls
  • Filters and distributes inbound calls intelligently
  • Tracks outbound calls accurately

Now, your healthcare call center software should also have the following features:

  • Call routing to reach the appropriate agent or department based on the nature of the inquiry
  • Call recording to monitor calls for:
    1. Quality assurance
    2. Training purposes
    3. Legal compliance
  • Analytics and reporting to:
    1. Track call volumes
    2. Agent performance
    3. Patient satisfaction metrics
  • Patient management to manage:
    1. Patient information
    2. Appointment scheduling
    3. Medical history
    4. Treatment plans
  • Integration with other healthcare systems (such as Electronic Health Records) to:
    • Streamline patient care
    • Improve workflow efficiency

3. Hire and Train Staff

A medical call center witnesses the most critical of queries regarding health.

This is why hiring and training competent staff can decide the success of a medical call center.

As managers, you need to keep tabs on new agents.

Additionally, agents have to be trained with the help of the following to be able to handle critical cases when dealing with anxious, stressed, or irritated customers:

  • Guidelines
  • Behavioral rules
  • Flexibility

Advanced healthcare call centers often have software that supports functions such as call monitoring, which enable managers or supervisors to train and monitor agents on live calls.

This helps a great deal because agents are given quick-fix solutions as per their supervisors’ experience. In this way, they can hit the ground running and get hands-on, practical training.

Having competent staff is vital for healthcare organizations since they deal with critical health-related queries.

4. Develop Standard Operating Procedures

You should create SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for your healthcare call center to ensure consistency in the information and services you provide.

These SOPs serve as a guideline for agents to follow, ensuring they adhere to a specific process when handling patient queries.

They also:

  • Enhance efficiency
  • Reduce errors
  • Save time

5. Ensure Compliance with Regulations and Standards

Maintaining compliance with regulations and standards is crucial for healthcare call centers.

This is because these regulations:

  • Ensure patient safety
  • Protect sensitive information
  • Promote ethical practices

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is one of the most important regulations that healthcare call centers must comply with.

This Act requires healthcare organizations to safeguard patient information and follow industry-wide standards for healthcare information.

Some other compliances include:

  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  • Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

6. Measure Healthcare Call Center Metrics & KPIs 

Now that you have set up your healthcare call center, how do you ensure that your performance does not get derailed?

You can do so by setting up some Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) and routinely tracking them.

Some of these important KPIs that define your performance rates are: 

  • Call abandonment rates

Call abandonment rates indicate the percentage of callers who hang up before reaching an agent.

To reduce frustration and improve patient satisfaction, call centers:

  1. Should use effective call routing software to quickly direct calls to available agents based on patient input
  2. Provide efficient and personalized service can help reduce call abandonment rates
  • First Call Resolution Rates

First-call resolution refers to the percentage of calls where an agent can resolve the caller’s issue without transferring, escalating, or returning the call.

To improve customer satisfaction, agents should be trained to provide counseling and solutions from the first call itself.

This is because repeat calls from customers due to unresolved queries can lead to a loss of business to competitors. 

  • Call Back Rates

After a client or patient abandons a call, many of them generally call back again, though some of them shift to other healthcare providers.

To prevent this, call centers should use flexible software with a quick callback feature.

This allows the call center to quickly reach out to clients or patients who have:

  1. Dropped out of the call queue
  2. Abandoned the call

This helps improve engagement and service quality, which, thus, provides a positive experience for patients without having to wait on hold.

  • Call Wait times

Call wait time is the estimated time a call is put on hold due to the call queue. 

High call wait times can negatively impact the patient experience, particularly if your patients have urgent health-related queries.

This is why healthcare call centers should do the following to reduce wait times:

  • Consider hiring more agents or keeping more representatives available during peak hours 
  • Invest in software that quickly connects calls with available agents is also an effective way

7. Efficiency Optimization Procedures

A hospital call center with a large patient base has to withstand a high volume of incoming calls. This leads to the jamming of phone lines which leads to grieving patients who hold on for unending periods.

Hence, the situation calls for thoroughly optimized procedures, such as the ones below, to provide the best patient experiences and swift service:

  • Keep note of the peak hours of incoming calls and ensure enough agents are available to take up calls
  • Get the right automatic call distribution software
  • Track the agent’s availability, working hours, and more
  • Dissolve language barriers by hiring multilingual staff
  • Managing remote agents from different locations is now easy. Hire and train remote agents from different timezones
  • Easily train and monitor agents over live calls
  • Track the right set of KPIs
  • Get the right set of customer service tools for managing both remote and in-office teams

Best Practices for Healthcare Call Centers

Make sure your healthcare call center follows these best practices for ultimate success:

1. Staffing and Scheduling

Healthcare call centers must have the right number of staff who possess the necessary skills as per their designation to deal with customer queries.

You should also ensure that you have a well-planned scheduling strategy that considers the following to ensure that patient calls are answered promptly and efficiently:

  • Peak call times
  • Shift coverage
  • Staff breaks

2. Patient Data Privacy and Security

The sensitive nature of patient information requires strict measures to ensure data privacy and security. Hence, you should train your call center staff to handle and protect patient data properly.

Make sure you use secure technologies for data storage and transmission.

3. Quality Assurance and Monitoring

Effective quality assurance and monitoring can help identify areas for improvement and ensure that call center agents are providing quality services.

The following aspects need to be monitored:

  • Call center data
  • Providing feedback to agents
  • Addressing any issues or gaps in performance

4. Continuous Improvement

Regular assessment of call center performance and identification of areas for improvement can help to enhance patient satisfaction and outcomes.

This assessment can be done by:

  • Gathering feedback from patients
  • Implementing new technologies
  • Providing ongoing training and development for call center staff

5. HIPAA Compliance

Keeping patient data safe and secure is one of the most basic and crucial aspects of a healthcare call center.

This is why HIPAA compliance of call centers is a very important Act.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996 to safeguard an individual’s health information at all times.

It requires healthcare providers and organizations, and their business associates to ensure the security of protected health information (PHI) when it is transferred, handled, or shared.

It also regulates industry-wide standards for healthcare information on electronic billing and other processes. This has led to a reduction in healthcare fraud and abuse cases enforcing these standards.

6. Personalization & Empathy

Empathy is essential to building smooth communication and positive customer experience. While you cannot imagine being diseased or ill, some tips you can follow to express empathy in such situations are:

  • You cannot sound robotic with patients, and neither can you be stern and imposing
  • You may have to apologize in some situations in case the patients are aggrieved
  • Provide first-aid counseling whenever required
  • Maintain a polite, positive tone
  • Make use of empathy statements to avoid any patient-provider conflict, etc.

7. Multichannel Support

One of the best practices in a medical call center is reaching out to patients or clients through any and every communication channel possible. For this, call centers should focus on ramping up their SMS, email, and call support workflows.

This is because calling has become a preferred method of putting forward queries owing to the growth in the number of mobile phone users.

Nevertheless, the SMS support channel is easier to work with, as the bonus with this service is the high opening rate of SMSes.

So, the best will be accompanying SMS and emails with the calling strategy, as it also opens up preferences for clients or patients, making them easily reach you through their channel of preference.

Challenges and Solutions for Healthcare Call Centers

Addressing the following challenges is crucial for healthcare call centers to improve operations and provide better patient experiences:

1. Staff Turnover and Burnout

One of the significant challenges for healthcare call centers is staff turnover and burnout.

To address this, call centers should:

  • Provide a supportive work environment
  • Invest in ongoing training and development for their staff
  • Offering competitive salaries and benefits can help attract and retain talented staff

2. Technical Issues and System Downtime

Technical issues and system downtime can disrupt the call center’s operations and affect patient care.

To minimize these issues, call centers should:

  • Invest in reliable technology and implement regular maintenance and backup procedures
  • Have a plan in place for addressing technical issues quickly and efficiently to minimize downtime

3. Language and Cultural Barriers

Language and cultural barriers can make it challenging to communicate effectively with patients.

Call centers should:

  • Invest in bilingual staff or use translation services to ensure patients can communicate effectively
  • Provide cultural sensitivity training to their staff to ensure they can deliver appropriate and respectful care to patients from diverse backgrounds

4. Integration with Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Integrating call center operations with electronic health records (EHR) can improve patient care and streamline workflows.

Call centers should invest in EHR systems that are compatible with their call center technology and provide training to their staff on how to use these systems effectively.

This can help ensure that patient information is accurately recorded and easily accessible to healthcare providers.

In Conclusion

A well-managed healthcare call center is the key to unlocking success in the healthcare industry.

From efficient staffing and scheduling to patient education and engagement, every step matters.

This is why you can invest in software like JustCall. Its advanced call center solutions are designed to ease your workload and enhance your patient communication experience.

Thus, if you’re ready to set up a healthcare call center or improve your existing one, talk to our experts.

Don’t wait, contact us today to learn more!

FAQs

What Do You Mean by a Physician's Office Call Center?

A physician’s office call center answers queries and generates positive communication between doctors, patients, physicians, and other healthcare providers.

How Does a Hospital Call Center Work?

A hospital call center works by using hospital call center software. Call center reps use an automatic call routing system, smart call routing, SMS, and emails to swiftly take care of patients’ calls.

Why should Hospital Call Centers be HIPAA Compliant?

The hospital call centers must be HIPAA compliant as it takes care of unauthorized leakage of information by preventing fraud and abuse of healthcare delivery.

What is a Health Insurance Call Center?

With a health insurance call center, patients can improve their experience by eliminating unnecessary queries and claims with automated service options.

It covers options like self-service, chatbots, and IVR for handling so many call volumes with ease and security.

Saya Augustin serves as the Associate Director of Marketing at SaaS Labs, bringing over a decade of expertise in diverse marketing disciplines. Her career encompasses successful Go-to-Market launches, Customer Engagement strategies, Account-Based Marketing, Demand Generation, and streamlined Marketing Operations. Shaped by the fast-paced and innovative environment of start-ups, Saya has honed her skills through practical experience with cutting-edge marketing technologies and platforms.

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