How Market Changes in the Phone System Industry Can Help to Control Healthcare Costs

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How Market Changes in the Phone System Industry
Can Help to Control Healthcare Costs

• Rob Black
• Product Manager, Enterprise Voice Solutions

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HEALTHCARE MARKET

• More and more administration
• HIPAA other regulations
• Managed healthcare cost cutting
• Created environment that puts strain on patient
  focus
• Need to use technology to automate processes to
  reduce costs allowing for more personal
  interactions with patients

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WHAT IS AN IP PHONE SYSTEM?

• Many different thoughts in the marketplace on
  what an IP Phone System is
• Companies like Vonage have helped to define VoIP
  as cheap minutes for your home
• An IP phone system is just like a regular phone
  system
• No Internet required
• Uses Ethernet cable instead of regular phone wire
  allowing businesses to save money on wiring
  costs
• Can add many more phones than traditional phone
  system
• Grows like adding more PCs to your network
• Allows for easy connection between multiple sites
• Otherwise it is very similar

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PHONE SYSTEMS IN HEALTHCARE

• Phone systems are critical for high quality
  patient interactions
• Staffing phone coverage is an important issue for
  personnel in a healthcare environment
• Offices will typically keep their phone system
  for 7 to 10 years
• Communication with doctors is often not through
  the phone system but a cell phone

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WIRELESS PHONES AND PDAS

• Huge number of new wireless, phones, PDAs, and
  devices are introduced every year
• New capabilities constantly added
• Features such as 802.11 wireless (same technology
  as is used for wireless access for laptops)
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) used to
  communicate with other infrastructure

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MOBILITY IN TODAYS HEALTHCARE MARKET

• Today doctors may be in the office, at the
  hospital, or at any number of locations
• Communication requires dialing several numbers
  while using different devices
• PDAs are sometimes used to keep track of patient
  information

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NEAR FUTURE
Car
Hospital
Office
Office

• Single device can be used as cell phone, office
  phone, PDA
• Can have an extension just like a regular office
  phone

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HOW WILL MOBILITY IMPACT HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS

• Will make users less reliant on phone system for
  desk phones
• Important that customers can add other
  manufacturers wireless phones to their phone
  system
• It will drive organizations to dramatically
  expand the quality and quantity of their wireless
  infrastructure
• It will drive smart apps on to mobile phones
  for
  activities like prescription management
• It will make telecommuting even more
  seamless as users
  can log on to the office
  phone system at home with their cell
  phone
• It will change expectations for employee
  availability and
  further erode the acceptance
  of non- real time communication

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SESSION INITIATION PROTOCOL (SIP)

• SIP is a language like English or Spanish
• It tells devices such as telephones how to
  interact with telecom infrastructure
• Many vendors have adopted SIP as the standard for
  communications
• Phone systems, desk phones, cell phones,
  applications
• Using a language that will work with multiple
  products is similar to having many people who can
  speak the same language.

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TWO KEY CHANGES IN PHONE SYSTEM MARKET
Enterprise
Carriers
SIP
SIP
Desktop Applications
Mobility
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PROFOUND MARKET SHIFT HAS BEGUN
800 lb Gorillas
Voice over TDM
Voice over IP
Technology
Voice as an App
Telecom Mgr
Network Mgr
Applications Mgr
Buyer
Standalone, proprietary h/w appliances (voice
mail, ACD, etc.)
Closed IP-based s/w appliances, Lin/Wintel servers
Application Support
Open, SIP-based applications
Proprietary open source call control /
features, SIP-based soft phones
Call Control Voice Features Embedded in
proprietary h/w (PBX, KTS, Phone sets)
Call Control Voice Features largely proprietary
h/w IPT platforms, phone sets
Features
Through 2004
2003-2007
2006
Sources Yankee Group, IntelliCom Analytics
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IP PHONE SYSTEM MOTIVATION IS CHANGING

• Applications are now the 1 reason in USA survey
• Intra-office long distance and cost savings were
  previously the top drivers

Source USA - IDC 2006
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CHANGES FROM MICROSOFT

• Microsoft is making voice and real time
  collaboration the reasons to upgrade to Office
  2007
• Already strained to find differentiation between
  its existing software version, MS had to find a
  new frontier
• Plans to integrate collaboration the way it
  integrated Internet Explorer directly into
  Windows 98
• 100s of millions will be spent educating the
  public about collaboration
• Coupling collaboration capabilities with the OS
  and basic applications like MS Word will drive
  business back into Microsoft
• Microsoft will work to create unfulfilled user
  demand

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DESKTOP PHONE APPLICATIONS

• Presence Allows phone system users to see who is
  available
• Like AOL IM chat
• Can collaborate via your desktop
• Multiple doctors can look at the same documents,
  charts, MRIs, etc.
• Can move communication from IM, to conference
  call, to video call
• To create a conference, simply drag and drop the
  names of the appropriate people
• Can set preferences for your phone attributes

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PHONE SYSTEM FEATURES TO SOLVE EVERYDAY PROBLEMS
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IS YOUR ORGANIZATION PUTTING OBSTACLES IN FRONT
OF YOUR PATIENTS?

• Do your patients get sent to voice mail when they
  call into your office?
• How many auto attendant selections do your
  patients have to press to get connected to the
  right person?
• What happens when patients call into your office
  and dont know how to spell the name of your
  employees?
• What happens to calls during lunch time? Who
  covers the calls?
• Do patients miss their appointments?
• When a doctor is on call but not in the office,
  how do patient records get updated?

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MAKING IT EASIER FOR PATIENTS TO REACH SOMEONE

• One of a largest blunders in any organizations
  phone system is to create a maze of Auto
  Attendants for patients to have to navigate
  through
• Some suggestions
• Associate a separate number for each different
  department, patients can call into to the
  radiology or medical records group directly
• Create a back door auto attendant for employees
  to get access to their voicemail or others
  extensions
• Minimize the number of auto attendant selections
  available

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MAKING IT EASIER FOR PATIENTS TO REACH SOMEONE II

• Better phone coverage for lunch or other busy
  times
• Instead of sending patients to voicemail, set
  them in a queue so they can wait until someone
  is available.
• Often this functionality is called Automatic Call
  Distribution or ACD
• Provide cordless or wireless phone to
  receptionist
• Can file paperwork and perform other office tasks
  while still being able to answer the phone
• Use your phone systems reporting tool Call
  Detail Reporting to
• Map out exactly when your busy times are and set
  staffing levels appropriate for those times
• Figure out how long patients are willing to wait
  before they hang up

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SPEECH RECOGNITION AUTO ATTENDANT CAN IMPROVE
PATIENT SERVICE

• Can access someones extension by saying their
  name!
• No need to remember spellings or extensions
• How many of your employees have difficult to
  spell names?
• No need to fumble with typing digits while
  driving
• No need to create complicated Auto Attendants
• Please say the name of the person or department
  you
  would like to reach

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FIND ME/FOLLOW ME

• Find me/follow me utilizes predefined rules to
  allow for better patient service
• Urgent patient issues can be resolved more
  quickly
• Receptionist receives call from patient doctor
  has been trying to reach
• Mobile phone rings no answer
• Phone in hospital rings
• Doctor picks up the phone
• Hears Call for Dr. Smith From Sally Jones
  and the doctor
  can answer the phone or send to voice mail
• The call is connected
• If the call is not answered it can go back to the
  receptionist, voice mail, or other call coverage!

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AUTOMATED PATIENT REMINDERS

• When patients miss appointments, it is expensive
  for your organization
• To mitigate this situation some healthcare
  organizations have someone call to remind the
  patient.
• This can be an expensive use of someones time
  that could be better spent answering the phone or
  performing other tasks
• Automated patient reminders can have the phone
  system automatically dial out and remind patients
  that they have an appointment

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CALL RECORDING

• What happens when a doctor is on call handles a
  patient call from out of the office?
• Are records kept?
• When a doctor is in the office, does he/she write
  down everything that is said to a patient?
• By using secure call recording and having these
  records transcribed, the doctors time can be
  saved and the patients can receive higher quality
  medical care.

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PHONE SYSTEM PURCHASE CRITERIA

• Does the phone system support a variety of third
  party wireless handsets?
• Will it allow with integration of my business
  critical desktop applications?
• Is it easy to setup new employees move existing
  phones?
• Can I easily change the auto attendant for
  holidays?

If you cant use or configure the features they
are worthless!
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THANK YOU