Parkchester Medical Case Study

Introduction

Parkchester Medical is a multi-specialty healthcare clinic with five practices exclusively serving the Bronx community. Founded more than 20 years ago, Parkchester's primary care doctors and specialists serve a large, dedicated population in the same facility, which allows patients to see multiple doctors in a single visit. This can dramatically increase patient compliance, leading to better outcomes.

Through assessment of departments across the organization, Parkchester Medical determined that the call center infrastructure lacked a clearly defined process and communication cadence, creating inconsistencies in agent-patient interactions. This resulted in less-than-ideal call center performance, higher appointment cancellation rates, and forgotten appointments.

"Patients who walk through the doors at Parkside always receive exceptional care," said Blane Digiacomo, {insert title} at Parkchester Medical. "At the same time, the call center is often the first point of contact for new patients and essential to a positive patient experience. We took action to establish a common thread in how we operate from a call center perspective to optimize patient compliance."

"The Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx is culturally, demographically, and economically diverse," Blane said. "snapscale seemed to understand the community we serve. We were confident in their ability to help us navigate these waters and operate independently without constantly asking how to assist different people in different circumstances."

Parkchester Medical leadership set out to find a call center consultant and outsourcing partner that could provide the expertise and resources to optimize call center functions. They chose snapscale because of their experience and proven track record in the healthcare call center space, but also because they understood the Bronx community.

Analysis and call center optimization plan

Parkchester Medical first requested that snapscale appraise the current state of the call center.

"We had snapscale enter our system and review data," Blane said. "They analyzed the length of calls, call transfer rate, call completion rate, and other metrics. They were able to determine which agents were performing well, which ones needed training, which ones we might want to consider replacing, and how outsourced snapscale agents can provide additional support."

The next step was to begin shifting call center responsibilities to snapscale and educating their team on the types of calls received, common patient questions and issues, and Parkchester's internal processes. snapscale then built a how-to guide that essentially combined all workflows and established standard operating procedures, which are used to train new call center agents, including outsourced agents from snapscale.

Parkchester Medical also relied on snapscale to help them determine when and how opportunities to bring people in for care were being missed. This is especially important in the Bronx, where healthcare access and outcomes have always been a challenge.

"Our goal is to keep people healthy and out of the hospital," Blane said. "We want patients to engage with their doctors so they don't just go to the emergency room when something bad happens. snapscale helped us isolate instances in which our call center can educate patients about what to expect during an appointment and how to prepare for an appointment. At the same time, we established processes to ensure patients receive follow-up calls and immediate assistance with medical forms and prescription refills with minimal hold time."

The results: Fewer cancellations, shorter hold times, actionable data

The optimization of the Parkchester Medical call center operation has been an expansive, comprehensive process.

"As far as immediate benefits, we've seen a decrease in cancellations and hold times as a result of our new communication cadence," Blane said. "snapscale also showed us how several types of missed opportunities were tied to an older phone system. Based on their recommendations, we're in the process of upgrading to a modern communication platform with new equipment and functionality. This will create a better agent experience and patient experience."

snapscale's outsourced call center agents have proven to be an extremely valuable resource. Since becoming familiar with various patient circumstances, snapscale agents require minimal support from Parkchester Medical's onsite team. If agents cannot resolve an issue themselves, they know how to help the patient find the answer.

The Parkchester team member who previously handled call center management now has the bandwidth to focus on more strategic initiatives because call center responsibilities have been transferred to snapscale.

Finally, the performance measurement tools and processes implemented by snapscale have provided Parkchester Medical with greater clarity into call center operations and performance.

Better analytics and good people

"snapscale provides a level of analytics and data that we previously did not have," Blaine said. "This has enabled us to better position the practice for growth. We can provide a better experience through the call center and optimize the schedules of our providers, which allow us to improve patient compliance, produce better outcomes, and maximize our ratings for quality of service."

Parkchester Medical leadership also believes the quality of the people and culture at snapscale cannot be overstated.

"Early in our discussions, snapscale was gracious enough to let me attend their virtual townhalls with staff from different parts of the world," Blane said. "Based on the recognition and incentives from leadership and the energy and enthusiasm of their team, it was obvious that snapscale understands the human element. As a healthcare organization, we want to work with good people who genuinely want to help others. From the top down, we feel like snapscale is aligned with our mission. They understand and value what we're trying to do here."

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