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Case Study: Akron General Medical Center

How your Contact Center can Intentionally Support your Strategic Plan

Akron General Medical Center Contact Center Staff
Download this case study	Mary Brackle Director of Marketing	Dan O'Donnell Director of Patient Registration

Organization

Akron General Medical Center, the flagship organization of Akron General Health System, has 511 beds, 26 bassinets and is an adult, tertiary care, not-for-profit teaching hospital. More than 1,000 physicians have privileges. A team of 3,400 professionals and support staff serve over 1.2 million people in northeast Ohio.

Challenge

While maintaining an unwavering commitment to clinical quality, aggressive market realities dictated budgetary constraints. The call center had two FTEs performing a limited role; physician referral and program registration. A strategic plan was developed to refocus the organization under the leadership of a new CEO. How could the call center directly, intentionally support the strategic goal to: "Create greater integration throughout Akron General Health System"?

Solution

A three step analysis uncovered opportunity: consolidate physician referral with central scheduling to both improve service and reduce cost.

Step 1:

Evaluate staffing based on phone volume in both physician referral and central scheduling

Step 2:

Appraise the scope of services provided

Step 3:

Determine infrastructure support for the integration of physician referral into central scheduling

Results

• Extended hours from 40 to 59 hours per week
• Expanded support for member System organizations: Massillon Community Hospital for physician referral and Lodi Community Hospital for both physician referral and diagnostic scheduling
• Increased call volume from under 100 calls per month to over 1,800
• Deployed Sharp Focus^® revenue reconciliation reports to document the value of the call center
• Documented financial benefit: matched revenue for physician referral continues to increase:
  2004: $885,000
  2005: $909,000
  2006: $945,000
  

Lessons Learned

Lesson 1:

Obtain a copy of your strategic plan and study it. Look for opportunities for your call center to support the top few priorities for your organization.

Lesson 2:

Sit down with your executive champion. Review and prioritize your list of preliminary opportunities for your call center to support the plan.

Lesson 3:

Do your homework. What analysis needs to be completed, what numbers need to be calculated to project a financial return on your most promising opportunities?

Lesson 4:

Partner with your call center team to implement. What are the opportunities you’ll pursue? Why? How will it affect them? What’s in it for them? How can they contribute?

Lesson 5:

Use revenue reconciliation in Sharp Focus to documents the financial benefit.

Lesson 6:

Recognize that the call center is critical to delivering on your organization’s brand promise. Your call center is often the first experience your customers have with your brand.

Mary Brackle, Director of Marketing and Dan O’Donnell, Director of Patient Registration speak from their experience. They summarize the opportunity: "Study your strategic plan. Partner with your executive champion. You will identify opportunities for your call center to make a larger contribution. Sharp Focus allows you to document the financial benefit."

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