Automated call system cuts no-shows 50%
Computerized solutions save money, staff time
For hospital staff who had to remind their patients of upcoming clinic visits, the work week began early. On Sunday night, they pulled out the appointment books that they had brought home and began calling patients to remind them to come in the next day.
Now many hospitals have turned to automated telephone solutions to automate these calls. As Cheryl Carr, administrator of MIS at St. Francis Hospital in Greenville, SC, explains, the hospital’s appointments for the next day are downloaded from a PC into the automated telephone system. The system takes the phone number for each patient and dials it in the evening. It leaves a "canned" message with the appointment time and doctor name. "[The system] keeps dialing until it dials all the appointments for the next day," she says. Besides freeing up a tremendous amount of staff time, the system also cuts down on the number of patient no-shows. "If the system is not working, the physician offices get upset."
Janice Williams, communications consultant for automated telephone software developer JulySoft in Tucson, AZ, says providers tell her the automated systems reduce missed appointments at least 50% reduction in the first month. "Providers can find they are losing $25,000 a year in a single practice from one or two no-shows a week," she says. (For a partial list of vendors, see box, below.)
But reminding patients about appointments isn’t the only useful function of these automated telephone systems. Other features include:
• reminders about immunizations and checkups for scheduled treatment plans;
• special instructions, such as to arrive early;
• product recalls and safety alerts;
• past-due notifications;
• prescription reminders;
• community outreach and education;
• birthday greetings;
• education and marketing;
• staff recall in times of emergency.
Automated telephone systems also allow patients to call to pick up their lab results. "Physicians can punch in a code and leave messages," Williams says. Then the patient calls, gives his confidential PIN number, and hears each doctor’s message. The system will ask if the patient wants the first message repeated and if he wants to hear the next message. "It anticipates the different needs people would have." The system also records whether a patient has retrieved his messages.
Providers can also determine how they want their automated telephone systems to operate. Here is what some of the automated telephone systems allow providers to do:
• Set up multiple lines. "If you set up different lines, you can do hundreds of calls an hour," Williams says.
• Set up the system to call any time. "One big advantage is the system can call after hours when people are more likely to be home," she says. "It can make those calls for you when your staff have gone home."
• Personalize the message. "If you have a new patient and want to use names in the message, the system will prompt you to record the name," Williams says. Users of the system can also change the language of the messages.
• Omit patients in the database so they won’t be called. "You can tag someone who doesn’t want to be called, and the system won’t call the person," she says.
• Set up multiple messages in a single call. As in the lab results example above, the system can allow patients to listen to all of their messages with just one call.
• Allow spoken answers. The system can give patients who have rotary telephones or who have difficulty operating telephone keypads to give verbal yes/no responses. It also can record spoken responses to queries or qualitative survey questions.
• Allow inbound and outbound calls simultaneously. The system can enable the delivery of information such as reminders while allowing patients to dial in to get test results.
• Allow call transfers. The system can transfer calls to others in the organization, including the scheduling desk, patient accounts representatives, or another department.
• Record results. The system can make printouts of its calling success. The printouts can record changed and wrong numbers.
Automated telephone systems help relieve the pressure on hospitals to be more productive, Williams says. "[With this system], at least you know you are reaching the person you want. More and more, providers are turning to the technology so they are released to deal with people coming in the door."
Selected Automated Telephone Vendor List
Here is a partial listing of vendors and their automated telephone software systems:
- ReminderPro for Windows and LabRetriever. Contact: JulySoft, 10 E. Knox, Tucson, AZ 85705. Telephone: (800) 350-7693. Fax: (520) 797-0552. Web: www.julysoft.com.
- PhoneTree and PhoneTree Plus. Contact: Personal Communication Systems, 2596 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106. Telephone: (800) 951-8733. Fax: (336) 722-6877. Web: www. phonetree.com.
- SmartTalk. Contact: SmartTalk.com, 2465 Central Ave., Suite 203, Boulder, CO 80301. Telephone: (888) 415-9001. Fax: (303) 440-3903. E-mail:[email protected]. Web: www.smart talk.com.
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