Give Your Memberships & Patients a Great Experience

If there is a field in which the healthcare industry could use some improvement, it is the area of member experience. In the fast-paced world, people seeking healthcare services often feel more like a number than an actual human being. With hospitals and medical institutes full of patients requiring medical assistance, it is often impossible to give special attention to each, and that takes a toll on the overall member experience.?

To improve the experience, many healthcare institutes have hired a third-party medical call center to handle member interactions. These healthcare call centers not only help the healthcare facilities to boost member experiences, member acquisition, and retention, but they also help the healthcare facility streamline its operations.

However, to do so, the healthcare call center has to face the unique challenges and requirements of the healthcare industry including- a complex guideline for compliance, complicated workflow integration and a high volume of calls from individuals who are in pain or suffering from ailments. Providing them with an experience that has a positive effect on them is not an easy task, especially if you consider 88% of healthcare appointments are scheduled by phone.

To overcome these challenges, selecting the right call center service provider is crucial. From the staff, protocols, the infrastructure, everything has to be perfectly aligned to the goal of the healthcare industry.?Here are a number of industry best practices that can help a healthcare call center to overcome the challenges and boost member experience:

1. HIPAA-Trained Agents

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has been around for more than twenty years. The provider of healthcare call center services Third-party service providers that work with healthcare facilities must be compliant with the HIPAA guidelines, which regulate the way member data is collected, utilized, and protected. To be compliant, healthcare call center agents must receive the necessary training so they can follow security protocols when interacting with the members.

2. Following HIPAA Security Protocols

Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Individual Health Records (IHR) are very valuable and stored and transmitted between agencies, providers, and members as per HIPAA regulations to prevent security breaches and protect personal health information. There are several security protocols like encrypted conversations, protected files with automatic expiration dates, as well as clear emergency procedures that are triggered instantly when a security breach is detected. A healthcare call center must follow these security protocols to protect the members of the healthcare industry safe from fraud and identity.

?3. Make Compassion Communications a priority

When members contact healthcare providers seeking guidance and reassurance, most of them are in a distressed emotional state. In such a situation, it is vital that call center agents treat the members with compassion.

Empathy often plays a significant role in boosting member experience, especially when the members in an emotional state. In such situations, a call center must stress on qualitative metrics such as first contact resolution, abandonment rates, and degree of engagement. Doing this will ensure better member satisfaction.

4. Provide Omnichannel Support

Members today want to able to get the assistance they need via their preferred channels of communication like – phone, email, chat, text, etc. The healthcare industry must be ready to deliver. Therefore, healthcare call centers must be able to provide omnichannel support at every touchpoint throughout the member journey, allowing members to switch channels seamlessly at any point of time.

5. Offer Multi-Lingual Support

As the healthcare industry serves a diverse demographic, a healthcare call center may have to interact with members of different ethnicities and language preferences. The agents should be able to interact with patients of various ethnic backgrounds and language preferences. Having agents who speak a variety of languages and are sensitive to cultural gaps can be counted among the best features.

?6. Track Member Interactions and Analyze Key Metrics

When a member leaves a healthcare facility after an interaction with your call center, it becomes hard to dig out the cause as only 4% of consumers share their complaints. To investigate, a call center must monitor call quality and ensure that people get redirected to the right department, as well as tracking the relevant KPIs to streamline workflow, and member experience.

?7. Improve Patient Retention by Understanding Patient Expectations

Member satisfaction is the key to maintaining sustainable growth via member retention and referrals. Therefore, a healthcare call center should understand members’ expectations proactively.?It allows them to improve their services to increase retention rates.

A call center can use member feedback gathered through surveys to ensure the best reporting performance. A call center can expand its capabilities by automating specific tasks like appointment reminder, offering test results, and health benefit verification. It will not only make the whole process efficient but also free up the agents to deal with really critical issues that require human skills and empathy.

With the right call center partner, healthcare providers can optimize patient experience, increase operational efficiency, and boost the quality of care. These call center best practices can help you integrate a call center platform with your communication system to deliver a seamless member experience while protecting your member information.

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