Workflow analysis of telephone call reception in healthcare organizations

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.

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 of the incoming calls will be reduced.

Summary and Conclusion

The project provides the flowchart used to answer the incoming telephone calls and discusses the policies and rules needed to answer a telephone call effectively. Moreover, the paper identifies the IVR as an effective technology to answer the incoming calls because the technology reduces the time to answer each call, which consequently reduces the costs of operations. Analyzing of workflow is beneficial to an organization in the long run because it makes organizations be efficient in their operations. Moreover, the flowchart enhances effective communication within an organization making the customer receive timely information about the organizational operations.

Reference

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2012). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (Laureate Education, Inc., custom Ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.

Strother, J.B. (2006). Call Centers in Health Care: Effect on Patient Satisfaction. IEEE.

Appendix 1: Answering Telephone Flowchart No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Start

Is the call about health information?

Answer the question requested or route the call to customer service representative

Is the health service requested available?

End

Record the caller's name, message, and contact information. Forward the message to CSR.

Does the caller wish to demand for additional information?

Thank you for the call. Goodbye and hang up the phone

Route the caller to healthcare professional capable to answer the caller's request

Inform the caller that they have been routed to Customer Service Representative

Good Morning. Best Healthcare. How can I help you?

May I know the names of the person calling please?

No