Case Study
Case Study: Champlain CCAC Patients Welcome Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Post-Discharge Calls
PROBLEM AND SOLUTION
The Champlain CCAC wanted to focus staff energy and resources on connecting with patients who had serious concerns or questions about the services they received through the CCAC and their condition upon discharge from the CCAC. New province-wide standards of care for CCACs require each CCAC to obtain feedback from patients about the care they received, the quality of care, and whether they were satisfied with their care. Staff are obligated to call discharged patients, most of whom are overall satisfied with their treatment and do not require further information or appointments. The Champlain CCAC implemented Vocantas’ solution CallAssure™ to contact discharged patients and ask them about the services they received through the CCAC. Patients who had questions and concerns about their condition or the quality of care they received were flagged for follow up so that the Champlain CCAC staff could reach out to those that were in need of information and assistance.
BACKGROUND
The following problems were being experienced by the Champlain CCAC:
- The important standard of care at the Champlain CCAC requiring discharged clients to receive a follow up call within a certain time frame was not being met
- The process of staff members making manual phone calls to every client and calling clients multiple times to make contact was resource intensive and inefficient
- The majority of patients were satisfied with their treatment from the CCAC and had no need to speak directly to a staff member
RESULTS
With the implementation of CallAssure, CCAC staff members reach out only to patients who responded to the new interactive automated call with questions or concerns about their care or condition since their services from the CCAC ended. The new interactive automated software has met the expectations of the CCAC by interacting with discharged patients in a timely and organized manner and alerting CCAC staff of patients who do require personal follow up. This not only improved the efficiency of the post discharge follow up calls, but saved the CCAC a large amount of money by directing staff labour to where it was the most useful and cost effective.
Staff labour was redirected entirely to patients that required assistance, direction, and information from a staff member concerning their condition or quality of service. Every manual call from a staff member is now a valuable call. In addition, the CCAC changed their internal process so that not only are all patients in need contacted in a timely manner, but follow up calls are made by the right staff member who is knowledgeable about their specific need and can give them information and direction that speaks to their unique needs and concerns. This information is acquired based on the questions asked during the interaction in the automated outbound call.
OUTCOMES
The Champlain CCAC formally evaluated the project using an existing internal evaluation process to assess the results and came to the following conclusions:
- The CCAC is now able to meet the province’s standards of care requirements
- CCAC patients, including those falling into the senior demographic, were accepting and enthusiastic about the technology
- CCAC staff were also pleased with the new system that eliminated the frustrating task of calling hundreds of patients multiple times to make contact, only to find that the patients were satisfied with their care
Working with Vocantas has allowed us to meet our standards of care goals, reduce the cost associated with client/patient follow up, and provide a consistency and reliability that we were previously unable to guarantee. This partnership has demonstrated that collaboration and innovation are priceless when it comes to addressing improvements within the delivery of healthcare. Paul Boissonneault Director – Information Systems and Technology and Chief Information Officer at Champlain CCAC
NEXT STEPS
The Champlain CCAC is looking for additional ways to deploy CallAssure to improve patient outcomes and reduce the burden of manual outbound calls. For example, calls can be placed to make initial contact with patients, to perform home visit verification quality checks, and to reach out to wait-listed clients periodically to evaluate their status and condition, offering support until they begin to receive CCAC services. The interactive automated solution could also act as a safety net in other areas, ensuring that the CCAC is consistently following up and assessing the status of their past, current, and future patients.
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