Is it ever OK not to answer the telephone? Sure, like when that pesky telemarketer calls for the sixth time with that supposedly incredible, limited-time offer.
But when it’s your patients who are calling, you have no choice but to answer the phone. And when hundreds or thousands of them are calling each week — at all hours of the day and night — you need an effective engagement solution in place and a reliable way to track your healthcare call center metrics. Anything less means you could lose patients. What’s worse, some percentage of your patients — those unable or unwilling to seek out other providers — will wind up forgoing the care they need.
Peak staffing levels provide, on average, only 60% of the coverage practices require, resulting in an average shortfall of 23 human agents for a center handling 2,000 calls a day.
The average hold time for call centers with human agents is four minutes and 24 seconds, which is five times longer than the 50-second standard recommended by the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
Only 1 percent of call centers achieve a first call resolution (FCR) rate of between 80% and 100%, meaning that many callers must call back one or more times to resolve whatever issue they are having.
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Why the Metrics Matter
To put it simply, answering the telephone is an essential part of providing the care your patients expect and deserve. And without metrics that measure the effectiveness of your call center solution, it’s difficult or impossible to know how and where you could improve.
Those National Library of Medicine statistics indicate that call centers handling 2,000 daily calls experience a 7% abandonment rate. That translates to 140 callers who gave up trying to reach a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional.
The impact of those lost calls is serious:
Impact on practice: Data shows that at least 60% of patients will abandon a call if they have to wait longer than one minute. That works out to an estimated daily revenue loss of $45,000 for a practice.
Impact on patients: Patients unhappy with their call center experiences are four times more likely to switch providers; however, since not all patients will switch, many simply don’t receive the information or care they need, which can negatively impact their health.
Top Performance Metrics for Healthcare Call Centers
The data on call center performance resembles alphabet soup, but each of the following metrics is important to understanding how your practice is interacting with callers.
1. First Contact Resolution (FCR)
First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a measure of what percentage of callers get the answer they need in one call. No one likes having to explain a complex problem two or three times. Industry studies show that meeting a benchmark of between 70% and 75% FCR can have a positive impact patient satisfaction.
But automating such functions with the healow Genie AI-powered contact center solution can make it possible to achieve an even higher score, giving most callers the information they need quickly and providing others with assurance that they will hear back from a provider soon.
2. Average Handle Time (AHT)
Average Handle Time (AHT), as the name suggests, is simply how long a call center agent spends on average with a given caller. The National Library of Medicine statistics point to an average AHT of 6.6 minutes, but evaluating AHT is tricky. After all, every caller has different needs, and while a shorter AHT might suggest a better resolution rate, some complex calls will take longer and ultimately yield high patient satisfaction.
That’s why practices need to balance efficiency and quality. And it’s why a feature such as healow Genie’s Intelligent Assistant can be effective in escalating more complex queries to human agents who have the training and access to patient records necessary to provide the help the call needs.
3. Patient Satisfaction Score (PSAT)
A Patient Satisfaction Score (PSAT) or Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is important for gauging how well your contact center solution is working. Typically, callers are asked to rate the service they have received on a numeric scale from 1 to 5. Just as with online reviews for consumer goods, hotels, restaurants, and more, a higher average rating indicates higher overall satisfaction.
Another advantage of healow Genie is its multimodal model. By employing a number of automated agents appropriate for the size of a given practice, Genie can answer 100% of calls instantly, eliminate on-hold time, and connect patients to providers 24/7/365.
4. EHR Integration Efficiency
Besides the metrics noted above, one of the most important practical aspects of a call center solution is the degree to which it is integrated with your practice’s EHR. Unfortunately, many call centers are simply places where agents with minimal training — and little or no access to your patients’ records — routinely answer calls and route them to on-call providers.
healow Genie goes far beyond such centers. It is an EHR-agnostic solution that can be used alongside the EHR of your choice and in conjunction with existing call center solutions. For practices whose EHRs are integrated, Genie and the designated on-call agents have access to patient records, helping ensure that callers get the personalized service they need and that even on-call providers understand their medical histories and needs.
5. Abandonment Rate
Like Average Handling Time, a practice’s abandonment rate — the percentage of callers to the center who simply give up — is difficult to assess. One contact center provider, for example, states that “an abandonment rate between 5-8% is no cause for concern,” and that only when the rate exceeds 10% should a practice “investigate why agents struggle to connect with callers.”
But healow Genie’s automated AI Agent ensures that every call is answered promptly, meaning that practices can aim for a 0% abandonment rate.
Best Practices for Implementation
Five or 10 years ago, the choice in contact center solutions came down to which group of human agents yielded marginally better results. Today, advances in AI make the choice much clearer: Practices can continue to use expensive human-staffed call centers that may not be integrated with their EHR. Instead, they can choose a fully automated solution such as healow Genie that can offer patients 24/7/365 access to their records and providers while cutting overall costs for the practice.
Once they have opted for an AI-powered solution, practices can then evaluate how many healow Genie “seats” — or automated agents — they need to serve their patients. The healow Genie team helps each practice determine their needs and works with them each step of the way during implementation.
Future Trends and Predictions
The future of healthcare is, at least in part, a story of the coming together of increasingly sophisticated technologies with increasingly empowered patients.
As Intelichart CEO Gary Hamilton told HIMSS24 attendees: “For decades, patients have been largely passive partners in their own healthcare. Those days are over. Patients empowered by technology and a new sense of autonomy are shopping for providers the way they do for other services and demanding that clinicians accommodate their expectations for scheduling, service and technology.”
Those expectations pervade every aspect of care, from the first call a patient places to all necessary follow-up care. As patients become more comfortable with technology in every aspect of their lives, including AI, they have higher expectations of their providers.
There is, in short, no longer any room for today’s providers to offer less than industry-leading solutions. Patients who don’t experience top-quality care and engagement can and will make other choices.
Conclusion
Because every healthcare practice’s needs are unique, it makes sense for them to seek a contact center solution with the flexibility and sophistication necessary to meet those needs — and one capable of growing as the practice grows.
healow Genie offers a balance of automated AI-powered technologies and designated human agents that can offer practices and their patients everything they need to ensure continuity of care.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a good First Contact Resolution rate for healthcare call centers?
Industry standards suggest aiming for a 70% to 75% FCR, but healow Genie can potentially deliver a much higher rate.
How does EHR integration impact call center efficiency?
Without integration with a practice’s EHR, call centers — human or automated — will be limited to connecting callers to on-call providers, who will then require additional time to access records and assess the caller’s needs.
What metrics best indicate patient satisfaction?
No single measure is sufficient to indicate overall contact center performance. For best results, practices should rely on multiple measures, including surveys, email, verbal feedback, social media reviews, and measures that can be generated by their contact center solution, including FCR, AHT, and PSAT/CSAT.
How often should healthcare call centers review their metrics?
Automated call center solutions such as healow Genie will produce a rich set of metrics that can be reviewed on an ongoing basis. But practices should be careful not to draw conclusions from limited sample sizes or short durations. Healthcare consumers, like consumers everywhere, need time to adopt new technologies. Given sufficient training and marketing efforts, practices can usually derive useful insights from quarterly reviews of their healthcare IT.
What technology investments improve call center performance?
Investing in an automated, AI-driven call center solution such as healow Genie takes patient engagement to a new level. Patients who enjoy 24/7/365 access to their data and providers are more likely to remain engaged with the practice, adhere to treatment plans, and ultimately enjoy better health.
How do AI solutions affect traditional call center metrics?
Artificial intelligence solutions, when developed responsibly and applied appropriately, can improve response times, boost patient satisfaction, and reduce the costs of operating a call center.
