Dive Brief:
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Kyruus, a Boston-based healthcare provider search and scheduling company, released a report on Thursday that found hospitals and health systems don’t often provide proper “front door” patient access.
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The study reviewed 40 leading U.S. hospitals and health systems and looked at “their ability to match patients with the right providers through their call centers.” Kyruus evaluated hospitals' and health systems' ability to connect clinically appropriate providers for the patient and their ability “to accommodate other important logistical needs and preferences,” such as insurance accepted, location, language, gender, and availability, according to Kyruus.
- Kryuus found that 58% of call center agents matched a patient with a provider during the first interaction and only 18% actually booked an appointment for the patient. The study found that it took three minutes on average to connect the patient with a live agent.
Dive Insight:
This report is likely to cause hospitals and health systems to review their call centers to make sure they are connecting patients quickly and accurately with providers. Front door problems go beyond customer service and patient relations.
There is a monetary failure if call centers aren’t seamlessly connecting patients with the correct providers. Not getting patients in the door hurts a hospital’s revenue stream.
Other findings in the report included that three-quarters of call center agents could not find an available appointment with the appropriate provider within a three-week timeframe and half of call center agents could not match patients with providers “located conveniently for the patient.”
Call centers are often a patient's first view of a health system. If there are speed bumps or even failures in the first stage, patients may go elsewhere. This report showed that hospitals and health systems need to make sure their front door services are working as seamlessly as other parts of their system -- or face the consequences of decreased revenue.