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BJC HealthCare Call Center Honored

HealthLine Systems’ 2008 national Client Recognition Award honors BJC HealthCare Call Center

CEO Dan Littrell (l) presents the Client Recognition Award to Kim Weir (r).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA JULY 15, 2008

"With the resources of Sharp Focus^®, the proven leadership of Director Julie Bruns and the excellent support of our entire BJC Call Center team, we’ve demonstrated that we can apply the performance improvement principles of Lean/Six Sigma with tangible financial results."

--Kim Weir, BJC Call Center Manager, Upon accepting the engraved crystal award to the applause of HealthLine clients

HealthLine Systems, Inc. is pleased to announce that its contact center Client Advisory Panel has selected BJC HealthCare Call Center as the 2008 recipient of the national Client Recognition Award. This distinction recognizes contribution to a health care organization utilizing HealthLine Systems’ contact center software solutions Sharp Focus^® and EchoAccess™. Criteria for selection include:

1. Measurable financial impact,
2. Interventions clearly related to the software, and
3. Lessons learned to raise the standard of practice for the industry.

Previous Client Recognition Award recipients include distinguished healthcare leaders: Sharp HealthCare (2004), Emory HealthCare (2005), Georgetown University Hospital (2006), and Tenet Healthcare Call Center (2007).

Challenge

From 2002 to 2007, the BJC HealthCare call center experienced call volume growth of 37 percent. From 2006 to 2007 alone, call volume increased by 17 percent and included calls of greater complexity with a greater variety of call types. Concurrently, the abandoned call rate soared to over 9 percent in 2007.

In July of 2007, a "lean/six sigma black belt" performance excellence process was applied to the call center to address the call volume / abandoned call rate challenge. "Service" in Sharp Focus was utilized as a repository for quality information using multiple key words so team members could search for and find the information easily.

For example, the call center receives many calls for resources for autism testing and treatment. Before the Sharp Focus intervention, paper listings of resources required frequent updates. Now the information is at their fingertips. Additionally, call center staff frequently need to contact key marketing contacts at each of 13 BJC Hospitals. Instead of looking through a rolodex or phone listing, all of this information was loaded into Sharp Focus as a "service".

Goals were to:

1. Make the information both easier and faster to find, saving precious seconds of call time;
2. Allow information updates one time in one place and
3. Improve documentation of "miscellaneous" calls which often were not previously tracked.

Result

For the first three months of 2008 the abandoned call rate dropped from its average of 9 percent for 2007 to 6.8 percent, 5.3 percent, and 4.2 percent respectively. A control plan was designed to ensure that improvements are sustained and corrective action is taken if necessary. The result of this reduction in the abandoned call rate means the ability to respond to between 600 and 750 additional calls per month, or between 7,200 and 9,000 additional calls per year—all without adding staff.

Based on BJC HealthCare’s 2006 call center revenue reconciliation documentation of the value or "worth" of each call, this result represents a financial impact of up to $2.5 million per year in incremental reimbursed revenue.

Lessons learned to raise the standard of practice

1. The principles of Lean/Six Sigma can be applied successfully in the call center setting
2. Front line call center staff involvement is crucial to success
3. Sometimes more isn’t always better; smarter is better!
4. Sharp Focus is an important resource to facilitate call center performance improvement

About HealthLine Systems

Now in year 23 of service to clients, HealthLine Systems, Inc. provides software solutions for over 1,000 healthcare organizations throughout North America. Sharp Focus^® and EchoAccess™ contact center software solutions address pressing requirements of hospitals, health systems and managed care organizations for increased market share and improved return on investment (ROI).

For more information, please visit us at http://www.healthlinesystems.com, call 1 800 733-8737 extension 7265, or contact us via e-mail at

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