Increased consumer expectations are a facet of the digital transformation our world is experiencing. Consumers are adept at accessing more information and services online, from checking into flights to paying parking tickets, viewing children’s report cards to scheduling a ride across town. Dramatic developments in communication technologies – mHealth, mobile phone apps, email notifications, online chat – have created an expectation of instant access across the consumer spectrum, including healthcare. From small clinics to the largest hospitals, patient expectations are rising.
Inadequate quality monitoring of communication channels in healthcare creates increased probabilities for mistakes in patient relations. However, a workforce optimization solution that records the agent/patient conversation and the agent’s desktop activity can provide a 360° view of the patient experience. This significantly lowers the odds of serious mistakes, while providing insight into every interaction.
The healthcare experience is multi-location, multi- departmental
Patients receiving healthcare services rarely deal with a single office. Modern medicine is diversified: physicians, labs, pharmacists, nurses, billing, scheduling. As patient communication moves from one clinic to another, from primary care to a specialist, from a surgical center to a pharmacy, so does the patient’s information. Compliance regulations require that all of these communications ensure patient information remains private and secure.
The challenge for many healthcare organizations is maintaining a comprehensive record of all patient interactions. All the 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 improves its accountability with patients, physicians, and even its own employees.
The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center offers almost every type of medical service. It is the 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 Medical Center was happy with their Avaya communications platform, but their recording solution for patient interactions was not capable of capturing it comprehensively. Patients commonly speak to medical professionals in different clinics or departments within the duration of a single call, switching from one facility to another. VCU’s recording solution was not able to record the complete 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, with the ability to follow patient interactions across several departments such as Patient Room Service, Outpatient Scheduling, Clinics, Labs, Patient Transfer Center, Psychology, and IT Desk.
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, from start to finish, call and screen.
In addition to patient experience insights, these recordings ensure accuracy in case of disputes or legal actions.
In order to strengthen its solutions and align with security regulations like HIPAA to keep every patient’s information private, Avaya benefits from its extensive developer ecosystem. DVSAnalytics is an Avaya DevConnect technology partner, and their HIPAA compliant Encore solution safeguards 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 and screen recording with available encryption for audio and video is a feature of the Encore workforce optimization solution. Also included are comprehensive tools to review and evaluate interactions for compliance adherence.
Interoperability with Avaya
Encore has many integration points with Avaya solutions. It operates with either TDM or VoIP-based systems and has been compliance-tested with a number of components in the Avaya IX Workplace unified communications platform. DVSAnalytics captures a wide range of computer telephony data from the Avaya communication platform allowing for unique views of call or interaction types.