Empowering Patients and Workers in the Next Era of Healthcare

To say that the COVID-19 has impacted the healthcare industry is certainly an understatement. The pandemic has fundamentally altered the way providers engage with patients. And establishing an effective and efficient digital front door is paramount to driving a health system’s success.  

A pivotal component of the digital front door is the contact center, which is often the first connection point for a patient or prospective patient with a healthcare provider. But how has the pandemic impacted the contact center from a healthcare perspective? A recent Frost & Sullivan report outlines the impact over the past two years. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 was the #1 factor preventing contact centers from meeting or exceeding their goals and objectives in 2021 and 2022. 

When considering the pandemic’s effect on contact centers, it is important to note the impact from three unique perspectives:  

• Patients 

• Contact center agents 

• Healthcare providers 

The exponential increase in communication demands from patients and the shift to remote work for agents led to new challenges in managing call volumes as a simultaneous new paradigm emerged with the workforce. In fact, 65% of health system contact-center agents moved to a work-from-home environment. The common element supporting successful management of this shift has been adoption of modern technologies, including cloud deployment. 

Supporting the New Patient Journey 

The Frost & Sullivan report identifies that between 2019 and 2020, patient communication increased on social channels, SMS, e-mail, and live and automated chat. SpinSci Technologies  and Five9 have partnered to provide solutions to support these new paradigms, including end-to-end digital front door solutions with seamless integration between electronic health records (EHRs) and the Five9 Intelligent Contact Center. These solutions allow increasingly pressured health systems to provide relevant and timely information to patients throughout the engagement process — whether through a self-service experience via voice/chat/text or a high-touch experience with a live agent.  

Patients now can efficiently and effectively engage in their own patient access workflows through self-service and receive proactive communication to update them on their journey. Improved engagement has the three-fold impact of driving patient loyalty and positively impacting the revenue cycle, while also supporting improved outcomes. 

Empowering the New Healthcare Workforce 

The Frost & Sullivan report indicates that 43% of healthcare systems studied are improving agent retention rates by providing new flexible tools and technologies. With Five9 and SpinSci, an agent now has all pertinent information at their fingertips as an incoming call is authenticated. On-call nurses know their patients’ histories and clinical details while working from a single pane of glass. Scheduling agents have access to their patients’ appointments along with important details regarding provider-scheduling protocols and availability — again, all within that single pane of glass. This helps support an enhanced employee experience driving retention and satisfaction. 

Moving Forward  

As we emerge from the pandemic, we recognize that the world will forever be different. A new empowered workforce has emerged with new supporting technologies to help drive success and enable operational excellence. Patients are seeking an excellent customer experience, but also expect to be engaged in their preferred communication channel. Improving the digital front door for patients and prospective patients is a critical component of a health system’s growth strategies.  

SpinSci and Five9 help support better healthcare interactions by enabling that digital front door and positively impacting the “quadruple aim”: reducing costs, improving healthcare outcomes, and providing a better patient experience with an improved clinician experience. 

Learn more by checking out SpinSci on the Five9 CX Marketplace.