From small clinics to the largest hospital institutions, patient expectations are rising. Increased consumer demands and expectations are a facet of the digital transformation our world is experiencing. Dramatic developments in communication technologies – mobile phones, email, online chat – have created an expectation of instant access across the consumer spectrum, including healthcare.

Inadequate monitoring of these communication channels in healthcare creates increased opportunities for mistakes in patient relations; from minor to catastrophic. However, workforce optimization solutions can provide a 360° view of the patient experience. This significantly lowers the odds of serious mistakes, while providing insight into every interaction.

Multi-location, Multi-departmental

Patients receiving healthcare services rarely deal with a single office. Modern medicine is diversified: physicians, labs, pharmacists, nurses, billing, scheduling. Patient information moves from one clinic to a another, from primary care to a specialist, from a surgical center to a pharmacy. Compliance regulations require all these communications ensure patient information remains private and secure.

The challenge for many healthcare organizations is maintaining a comprehensive record of all interactions. All of these interaction recordings, call or screen, must be securely stored, with restricted and monitored access, to be compliant with healthcare industry privacy regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

VCU Medical Center

The Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center was happy with their Avaya communications platform, but their recording solution for patient interactions was not capable of capturing the entire patient experience. It was not able to record an interaction from the time the patient call was answered to the time the patient hung up.

With an increasing focus on improving the patient experience, VCU needed a more robust, comprehensive solution. Their search for a new contact center optimization solution included comprehensive recording requirements, including the ability to follow patient interactions across departments:

• Patient Room Service
• Outpatient Scheduling
• Clinics
• Labs
• Patient Transfer Center
• Psychology
• IT Desk

Encore WFO

The Encore® Workforce Optimization (WFO) solutions provided the answer for the VCU Medical Center. Seamlessly integrated into their Avaya unified communications platform, the Encore solution securely records complete interactions from start to finish, call and screen.

Comprehensive recordings of patients, medical professionals, insurance companies, transportation providers, and even pharmacies, can be analyzed to gain insights into every aspect of patient care. In addition to patient experience insights, these recordings ensure accuracy in case of disputes or legal actions.

HIPAA and Compliance

HIPAA compliant, Encore continues to safeguard patient information by managing and tracking who views recordings. Controlling access to recordings is integral to organizational success. VCU was able to customize and configure employee access to patient interaction recordings to safeguard each patient’s Protected Health Information (PHI) as required by law.

Security is built into the foundation of Encore to meet industry-specific needs like HIPAA, PCI and other compliance requirements.

• Complete end-to-end call recording with available encryption
• Synchronized call and screen recording
• Comprehensive tools to review and evaluate interactions
• Automated coaching for contact center agents to improve skills for compliance and other metrics

Quality Management & Training

The Encore Quality Management solution is designed to boost contact center performance and enhance the patient experience. Beyond scheduling tools, eCoaching and eLearning solutions amplify supervisors’ efforts, providing performance feedback and training materials without waiting for the next manager’s meeting or scheduled training. These Encore solutions enable supervisors to introduce new training or provide refresher courses at need.

7 Tools to Enhance Patient Relations for Healthcare [infographic]

Improve patient care, ensure confidentiality of PHI, and maintain HIPAA compliance with the Encore workforce optimization and engagement management solution from DVSAnalytics.

Compliant Recording and Encryption

Automatically encrypt patient information, CPT/ICD codes, and other sensitive data.

Complete Interaction Recording

Record call & screen interactions with patients, medical professionals, insurance companies, transportation providers, and pharmacies.

Capture the Entire Customer Experience

Comprehensive interaction recording to capture the entire patient experience among multiple clinics and departments.

Easy Access to Review & Evaluate Patient Interactions

Securely link & export interaction recordings to HIS & EMR systems.

Secure Activity Logs & Permissions

Define, manage & track who accesses interaction recordings, features and functions.

System Interoperability

Seamless integration with most major unified communications solutions.

Workforce Engagement Management

Meet service level objectives & build an engaged, qualified staff with digital tools for training, scheduling, and gamification.

VCU Medical Center Case Study

The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center offers almost every type of medical service. It is the Richmond area’s only Level 1 Trauma Center for adults and children. Receiving thousands of calls each day, answered by employees in different clinics, departments and programs, VCU deployed Encore to help meet their operational challenges.

Download the VCU Medical Center case study.