The 3 Things Every (Great) Hospital Learns from Its Patient Calls

Derek Stein,
RevSpring

Call tracking is a remarkably powerful tactic to measure call center performance. But when it comes to gaining insight from the collected data, many health systems are falling short.

Tracking patient calls into your business office, not only gives your call center team an opportunity to learn and improve their performance, but can uncover significant insights about your current revenue cycle processes.

Applying Patient Call Metrics to Your Revenue Cycle

Here are 3 insights that can be uncovered when hospitals evaluate their call tracking data with a more holistic approach.

1. Flaws in statement design
When patients are calling into your business office with the same questions or requesting the same information, this could be an indicator that it’s time to reevaluate your patient statement design(s).

If the information is not currently present on your patient statements, add it.

If it is present, you may want to consider strategically relocating the information on the patient statement. Leverage color and graphical treatments to draw the patient’s eye to the information and help with comprehension. These enhancements not only help you better engage your patients, but can significantly decrease your patient call volumes.

2. Self-service opportunities
When trending the reason behind your patient calls, or more specifically the tasks patients are calling to accomplish, hospitals can often uncover a need for self-service applications.

If a large number of patients are calling to simply make a payment, consider automating this process and giving patients the ability to make a payment online or through an inbound IVR system.
Or, if an excess of patients call to check account balances, set-up payment plans, or apply for financial assistance, a web based self-service portal could meet those needs without customer service intervention.

3. A business case for customer service technologies
If your metrics show high call resolution times, or a low percentage of first call resolutions, it may be worth investing in a customer service portal for your call center.

Regardless of the business industry, customers equate slow service and support to a lack of caring or incompetency. Neither of which is good for your health system.

Giving your call center quick, online access to the documents they need, and features like emailing a statement or other documents on demand, can boost first call resolution and decrease resolution times.

Using data to inform your decisions

When assessing any new technology, self-service or customer service focused, be sure to leverage the data being collecting in your call center. Comparing this data against your call center’s operating costs can help you calculate the solution’s ROI potential and its financial impact on your revenue cycle.
While tracking call center performance is not a new concept, if revenue cycle professionals take a step-back when evaluating their data, it can open up opportunities to improve business processes and enhance the overall patient experience.