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Business Challenge

Our client is a highly recognized county-based public healthcare delivery system. After implementing Safety Net Connect’s electronic provider consultation and referral system, the volume of patient calls to schedule appointments with specialists increased dramatically, resulting in long wait times and reducing patient and provider satisfaction. The Managed Care Services (MCS) Division engaged Kenny & Company to perform an assessment of the specialty care appointment call center operations.

The key issues that faced our client were:

• High backlog of appointments to be scheduled
• Long wait times (over seven minutes) for patients calling in
• Unacceptable call abandonment rate (up to 25%)
• Limited use of metrics to flex staff during periods of high demand

Client & Engagement Quick Facts

• Owns and manages four hospitals, several of which are teaching hospitals affiliated with universities, with numerous hospital-based clinics and community health centers
• Call center receives approximately 300 calls per day
• Scheduling team averages 10,000 specialist appointments per month

Our Solution

Kenny & Company discovered that the appointment scheduling unit was not designed to be an inbound call center so this function had not been sufficiently structured, staffed, or managed. We made recommendations to redesign the inbound call function, using patient service agents to answer the phone calls and then transfer to trained appointment schedulers. This required partnership with MCS’s patient service call center. The redesign also allowed the call center to extend its hours to provide more flexibility for patients calling to schedule an appointments. Kenny & Company recommended close monitoring of key call center statistics to allow for dynamic adjustment of staffing during high call volume periods.

Business Benefits

Kenny & Company’s recommendations dramatically improved call center operations. Call wait times were reduced by six minutes, abandonment rate is less than five percent, and patients have increased hours to schedule their specialty care appointments.

About Kenny & Company

Kenny & Company is a management consulting firm offering Strategy, Operations and Technology services to our clients.

We exist because we love to do the work. After management consulting for 20+ years at some of the largest consulting companies globally, our partners realized that when it comes to consulting, bigger doesn’t always mean better. Instead, we’ve created a place where our ideas and opinions are grounded in experience, analysis and facts, leading to real problem solving and real solutions – a truly collaborative experience with our clients making their business our business.

We focus on getting the work done and prefer to let our work speak for itself. When we do speak, we don’t talk about ourselves, but rather about what we do for our clients. We’re proud of the strong character our entire team brings, the high intensity in which we thrive, and above all, doing great work.