As practices and organizations move to value-based care, medical call centers can play a crucial role in improving the patient experience and the quality of care while containing costs. An effective way to start finding a solution is to evaluate data from nurse triage call centers on patient concerns, caller demographics, nurse triage disposition and effectiveness, and other measures to improve the call center and the patient experience.
Value-based programs focus on the quality of the care given, rather than fee-for-service. Ensuring that patients receive the right level of care for their symptom is an important first step in preventing healthcare wastage. Providing patients with a quality medical call center that they can access 24/7 is a great first step in transitioning to value-based care. Providers and hospitals can then gather the information from the patient callers to further improve their service while containing costs.
Studies show that incorporating data analytics into value-based care programs could reduce healthcare spending by $300 billion. Healthcare providers need to be able to gather, analyze, and report on patient data to show that they are improving the quality of care. This quantitative method is especially important in medical call centers. Call center software should include a data portal to easily evaluate key metrics in order to spot trends or areas that could be improved.
Gather
For new call centers and those selecting a new platform, start by evaluating what data is collected and what you need to know to help the patients and the practice. For example, TriageLogic’s data portal collects data on the number of calls per protocol, calls per nurse, dispositions, and disposition override. Call centers also get data on nurse performance such as the number of calls per hour and percentage of patients told to seek emergency care. Data on nurse performance can be a valuable tool in evaluating nurses and determining where further training may be needed.
Analyze
While gathering the data is a crucial first step, the platform also needs to have a simple dashboard for the manager to monitor the key metrics of patient calls and nurse performance. For example, the TriageLogic data dashboard allows the user to break down the data by date, location, nurse, etc. Reviewing the various data sets can help caregivers gather insight on the performance and find ways to improve care.
For example, when using the TriageLogic data dashboard users can see the percentage of the dispositions given to the patient callers. Users are able to see the actual data as the number of calls and the percentage of the total, as well as graphs that illustrate any trends of the different disposition percentages.
Report
After analyzing the data from medical call centers, physicians or organizations can better understand their patient population. Look for a quality call center platform that will allow call center managers to easily export the information in various formats and then share it with their practices, such as TriageLogic’s Call Center Solution. This is an important feature to improve coordinated care between the office and the call center. Physicians can see what concerns their patients have after-hours and make positive changes that can address those concerns ahead of time. For example, an increase in stomach pain related issues may mean that a virus is hitting their population.
Another important use of data is to compare the number of patients that were prevented from going to the ER. A high number of those patients shows how much value the call center is creating for the practices (ROI) and it may encourage hospitals and providers to continue encouraging patients to call a nurse line before going to the ER.
Security
When collecting patient data, it is vital that all data from the call center software be fully secure and that products are evaluated and updated as technology and standards change. When evaluating call center software, make sure that you understand how patient data is being stored and secured and that you are able to share the information with providers securely or without any PHI.
The goal of value-based care is to provide better care for patients, create a healthier population, and reduce healthcare costs. A nurse call center system armed with good data analytics allows you to identify the quality of the clinical call center and improve the efficiency of the nursing staff while helping patients at the same time. Having access to this data, analyzing it, and sharing the information with providers improves patient care, while at the same time showing the value of your call center service and saving valuable health care dollars.
*Click here to read this article in the April issue of AnswerStat
