Workflow to Answer a Telephone Call in an Office

Work Flow Analysis Workflow of Answering a Telephone in an Office Workflow is a series of tasks that an organization undertakes to achieve the desired outcome. A workflow analysis assists an organization to automate, streamline and improve efficiency. (McGonigle, & Mastrian, 2012). In other words, a workflow analysis assists in maximizing an effective use of essential resources, and minimize the activities that are not adding values to organizations.

In the United States, the operations of healthcare environment are increasing and require a streamlined business process to enhance safety and quality of healthcare delivery. Workflow is a crucial aspect of information technology to achieve intended business outcome. In a healthcare environment, a workflow is a process of interaction through which hospitals deliver efficient healthcare to patients. While there are different types of workflow, a flowchart is an effective tool to address inefficiencies.

Answering a telephone in an office is a common event that occurs regularly in a healthcare organization since a healthcare organization is required to answer patient's calls and calls from other stakeholders. The objective of this study is to analyze the process of answering a telephone in an office. The flowchart in Appendix 1 reveals the process an organization answers a telephone call using the company salutation. Typically, a clear method of repetitive telephone routing system is carried out to identify waste and redundancy.

The flow chart reveals a nurse receptionist answering a call with a salutation and use the company identification. The Stakeholder In a contemporary healthcare organization, internet technology is increasingly replacing human interaction. Despite the importance of online technology, many patients still require the telephone services.

The stakeholders in charge of answering the office telephone is the nurse receptionist at the hospital call center, who receives the telephone calls from customers or other stakeholders such as doctors, healthcare providers from other organization, government representatives or individuals seeking for information about the organization health care services. After the receptionist receives a call and collects necessary information, the information collected from the customer is passed to the customer service representative for immediate attention.

The customer service representative is an intermediary between the customers and the company who assists in answering consumer questions and resolving issues related to healthcare services. In some cases, the customer service reps may seek more clarification from other healthcare professional such as physicians, nurses, physiotherapists or other healthcare professionals. In the chart, the customer service representatives may connect or route the phone to nurses or physicians to answer the phones calls.

It will be necessary for the nurses, physicians or other healthcare professionals to answer the phones calls if there is a need to clarify the technical issues that the customer's representatives face challenging. Type of Technology Used A virtual switchboard is one of the effective technologies that our organization employs to route a call. Virtual switchboards are the automated system used to connect different incoming calls, and the virtual switchboard is an effective tool to switch calls to different destinations.

The IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is one of the call routing systems having an interface with the company databases. The application is used to expedite telephone request, route a call to appropriate stakeholder and enhance the quality of customer service. The IVR system is very effective tools used to automate customer communications distribution and enhance service follow-up. In essence, it will be time-consuming to answer all telephone calls from customers and other stakeholders seeking for the information from the organization.

"The IVR system primarily supported the ability to route calls to appropriate agents based on skill levels and to provide reporting for the effective management and evaluation of the Call Center's performance." (Strother, 2006 p 5). Thus, the IVR system is an effective technology that assists in reducing time and costs used to answer the phone calls. Policies and Rules Healthcare organizations implement different policies and rules to ensure that customers receive appropriate health information to enhance customer satisfactions.

Thus, our healthcare organization is committed to ensuring that all phones calls are answered in a professional manners and clients questions are answered before finishing the call. Moreover, personal calls should be reduced to a minimum in order not to disrupt business operation. The paper suggests using Operational Standard Model to execute the policies and rules in answering calls.

The model states that the call operators should answer 90% of all incoming calls within 10 seconds, however, all the incoming calls should be answered within 20 seconds, and all calls are answered in the order of priority. Metric to Evaluate the Flowchart The performance measure model is an effective tool to evaluate the workflow. In other words, the performance measure systems are the effective metrics to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of the workflow.

Typically, the workflow should be able to improve the knowledge of patients through the information received during the telephone call. A strategy that can be used to measure the workflow effectiveness is to collect the feedback of patients who use the telephone, and who demand the information about the health service. The outcomes of the feedback will be used to evaluate the flowchart. Moreover, the number of repeat customer seeking for our healthcare services is another metric for the evaluation.

The organization can also use patient's survey and interview to evaluate the effectiveness of the workflow. For example, if the results of the feedback are not encouraging and patients assert that they do not receive the information they request from call centers, the organization is required to correct the problem and improve the workflow. Improvement Strategy An employee training is one of the effective strategies to improve the quality of workflow. For example, an employee at the call centers should be trained on the appropriate strategy to answer the call.

Moreover, the organization should provide detailed information on the company website to reduce the volume of the incoming calls. If an organization provides a detailed information online and educate patients on the likely answers to their demands, the volume.