Saint Barnabas 'Link' fills needs systemwide
Saint Barnabas 'Link' fills needs systemwide
Call center responds 'upon request'
When a need is expressed within Saint Barnabas Health System, based in Livingston, NJ, there's a pretty good chance its off-site call center, known informally as "the Link," will be able to help in some way, says Belynda Delgado, MSN, BSN, RN, director of Saint Barnabas Health Care Link.
The non-clinical call center provides solutions "upon request" for various entities within the six-hospital health system, says Delgado, whose first piece of advice to call center managers is "never say no to any project. It's an investment for the facility."
Four years ago, Health Care Link took over call center functions that previously had been outsourced, she adds, and it shares space with a pre-existing behavioral health call center.
Among other things, staff at the Link preregister patients for blood tests, mammograms, echocardiograms, diabetes education classes, and physical therapy, and they also arrange physician consultations, Delgado says. They also make follow-up calls to emergency department patients discharged the previous day, do survey call-backs, and send out "a lot of mailings," she adds.
What Delgado stresses to her staff, she explains, is the need to educate the public. If a patient calls for a physician referral, for example, employees are directed to "let them know that's not all you do. If they don't know what we have, they won't call us back."
Health Care Link began with 2.5 full-time equivalents (FTEs) and has quickly grown to include eight representatives, soon to be 10, Delgado notes. "I just got approval to add two positions."
The Link began arranging physician consultations in the summer of 2007, she says, acting as a sort of concierge for physicians seeking a consult for a patient in one of the Saint Barnabas facilities.
"The physician calls us and requests that the patient be seen by a consulting physician," Delgado adds. "We call the consult and tell [him or her] about the patient and why [he or she] needs to be seen. We reach out to the offices and make the appointment for them, and the consulting physician goes to the hospital and sees the patient."
As of about mid-April 2008, the process will be done electronically, she says, with the initiating physician making the request, "just like entering an order in the hospital computer, which is in sync with our software."
Call center staff began arranging the consults which she calls a "great physician pleaser" for Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, the health system's cardiac teaching hospital. "We started with the adult medicine physicians, and in a month will include the pediatricians as well," Delgado adds.
Once that piece is in place, she says, the call center will extend its service to arranging follow-up appointments with the physicians.
The calls made by call center staff to ED patients discharged the previous day are designed to support patient care and enhance customer service, Delgado notes, but also provide a way to introduce patients to Saint Barnabas physicians.
"We ask [questions like], 'How's it going? Are you feeling OK? Do you need a doctor?'"
Staff can segue to physician referral, she says, with the ability to search for physicians using criteria such as insurance type, education, gender, language, distance from home, and years in practice.
In another successful initiative, Delgado recounts, the Health Care Link turned around the process whereby patients are registered for blood work at Kimball Medical Center, a Saint Barnabas hospital in Lakewood, NJ.
The first-come, first-served process in place in the department was resulting in bottlenecks, she says, which was becoming a customer service issue as elderly patients and people who had been fasting waited a long time for their blood tests.
Her suggestion, Delgado says, was, "what if those patients called the Link, read their [physician orders] to us, and we preregistered them over the phone?"
Now, instead of coming in and waiting their turn, patients have the option of preregistering through the call center, she adds. "We schedule the appointment and ask what type of blood test they are having and which physician is ordering the test."
Education, scripts provided
Call center staff, meanwhile, have been provided with information regarding blood work, Delgado says, including a script to help them answer any questions patients might have. As with other areas, she notes, "if it gets too clinical, they refer them to the facility."
Staff also have been certified for preregistration, Delgado says, receiving the CPAR, or certified patient access representative, designation used in the Saint Barnabas system.
Patients are informed of the preregistration option through flyers and other routes, she says, but perhaps the most effective advertisement is seeing a patient who just walked in go ahead of them for service.
Appointment times assigned by Health Care Link staff mimic the hospital schedule, with times set for 9 a.m., 9:15, and so on, Delgado explains, and preregistered patients are instructed to go to the front desk and tell the person there that they have an appointment.
Hospital staff refer to an appointment list that has been forwarded to them by Delgado and pull the chart for that patient, who is asked for the physician order and a couple of signatures, she says. "Five minutes and they're out."
Delgado stays in touch with the physician liaisons for the six Saint Barnabas hospitals, discussing such issues as the high demand for certain specialists, she says. "They are my conduit to the community."
Using data gleaned from Health Care Link calls, Delgado notes, she also can communicate the need for various educational services. "I also deal with the public relations director [regarding] the information I have internally that goes out to the public and vice versa."
Because of Health Care Link's growing and continually updated database, she says, "we've become the mailing list" for brochures and other health system mailings.
"We have repeat callers who know us now," Delgado adds, "so we need to let them know what we have, and that if it's not available in one facility, we can refer them to a sister facility."
To ensure that Health Care Link continues to be a valuable resource, Delgado takes a proactive approach, she explains, checking on ongoing projects and studying processes "so I can figure out how the Link can help ease a process or help customer service. I've learned to deal with administrators and managers and educate them on what we do and how we can help them."
Crucial to that effort are one-on-one teaching sessions with staff, Delgado says, "to make sure they're documenting the same way." In-services conducted by departmental representatives on, for example, digital mammography also are important, she adds.
"You can only cross-market what you know," Delgado points out. "If you just blindly transfer a caller, that's not a good thing. The more knowledge [the call center employee] has, the better. If the question gets too technical, we refer the caller to the department."
Staff retention
With an eye on staff retention, she says, call center employees are rewarded for productivity and good outcomes.
"It's important for us, when we give out physician referrals, to follow up in a week or so and see if the caller did make that appointment," Delgado adds. "It's your return on investment. We document that, and on a monthly basis, track the number that each counselor has made."
Statistics are compiled and call center employees are recorded accordingly, both individually and as a group, with gift certificates or perhaps being treated to lunch, she says.
Employees also are recognized on an annual basis, notes Delgado, who has developed her own criteria for performance measurement.
"It's a combination of customer service [observed through silent monitoring], physician referrals, attendance, being a team player, professionalism, and number of transactions completed," she says. "I also take into consideration compliments that [staff] received."
[Editor's note: Belynda Delgado can be reached at [email protected].]
When a need is expressed within Saint Barnabas Health System, based in Livingston, NJ, there's a pretty good chance its off-site call center, known informally as "the Link," will be able to help in some way, says Belynda Delgado, MSN, BSN, RN, director of Saint Barnabas Health Care Link.Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.