How Webex Helped MedStar Well being Scale back Common Deal with Time

MedStar Well being is a not-for-profit healthcare group serving sufferers within the Washington, D.C.–Baltimore, Maryland space. Headquartered in Columbia, MD, the group oversees 10 hospitals and 500 care websites. With over 30,000 associates and 4,700 affiliated physicians, MedStar’s medical exercise consists of major care, cardiology, oncology providers, rehabilitation, neurosciences, orthopedic surgical procedure, girls’s providers, and emergency/ trauma providers, amongst others.

The group is devoted to serving its clients and making certain they get the (typically essential) care they want. Nevertheless, with excessive numbers like these talked about above, one can think about the‌ problem of answering the quantity that MedStar’s contact heart receives. In accordance with Kristina Russell, Vice President of IS Operations, this quantity is over 15,000 calls per day in 2025. MedStar has consolidated, improved, and grown its affected person entry groups to satisfy this stage of demand.

MedStar Well being’s Contact Heart

As is the case with many healthcare suppliers, MedStar’s contact heart serves as a major level of contact for sufferers in search of to schedule appointments, pay payments, and discover solutions to their inquiries. Moreover, the group makes use of its contact heart for outbound calls to assist with affected person discharge directions and to arrange post-hospital appointments. MedStar’s contact heart is without doubt one of the key techniques by means of which they convey and serve their clients.

Nevertheless, by 2019, MedStar’s earlier cellphone system was now not match for function — the group wanted an improve. Along with this, MedStar was seeking to consolidate name heart providers, so management knew {that a} vital overhaul to their contact heart gear and software program was so as.

Partnering With Cisco

MedStar put out a request for proposal (RFP) in 2019, and it was throughout that course of that management thought-about Cisco as the perfect potential accomplice, and Webex as the perfect potential resolution. Sadly, with the RFP happening in 2019, that didn’t give MedStar a lot time to behave earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic struck. This each sophisticated the method of adopting a platform comparable to Webex and made that course of all of the extra pressing. 

The pandemic was disruptive for all companies. However for a healthcare group, the disruption was like a shockwave. Individuals now relied on their suppliers like by no means earlier than, so MedStar acted shortly to start out using Cisco to assist their distant workforce.

Kristina explains: “We needed to transfer 4,000 individuals residence who had not beforehand labored from residence earlier than.” This was one thing MedStar had by no means completed, however “Cisco gave [MedStar] the chance to try this shortly. In a single day, actually.” The adaptability and integrability of Webex had been key throughout this era, Kristina says. “We selected Cisco throughout that point as a result of it was a fast and straightforward implementation.”

However Cisco’s responsiveness and Webex Contact Heart’s ease of implementation weren’t the one elements. “After we had been contact heart options, we had been on the lookout for one thing that would permit us customization,” Kristina explains, and MedStar wished to keep away from “an answer the place we couldn’t make adjustments.” Kristina characterizes the MedStar contact heart as “not gigantic,” having 600 concurrent brokers.

Utilizing Webex

Kristina says that, as a “midsize contact heart,” Webex Contact Heart has been an amazing match for MedStar’s wants and has allowed for “the customizations we would have liked.” Moreover, Kristina says, contact heart brokers discover Webex “straightforward to make use of and intuitive.” They recognize having the ability to see details about who is looking and why, which helps them higher help sufferers. Supervisors have additionally benefited, utilizing dwell dashboards and stories to monitor the decision heart and make the most of callback recording for teaching and high quality management. 

MedStar’s clients recognize Webex Contact Heart, too, although as Kristina explains, they don’t actually notice it. “Our clients simply need us to reply the cellphone, and Cisco actually permits that to occur.” She describes Webex as a “very secure” and “dependable” resolution that’s “straightforward to make use of.” At the moment, MedStar primarily makes use of Webex for voice providers, however the group is seeking to “make the most of extra chat and e mail integration.”

Metrics and Advantages

Since implementing Webex Contact Heart, MedStar has centralized its name heart operations, which has diminished deal with and wait occasions. Kristina anticipates saving “20 seconds of deal with time per name on a three-minute name” with an extra mission that provides automation and integration with MedStar’s Digital Well being File. By itself, 20 seconds doesn’t sound like so much, however think about the context. As Kristina places it, when dealing with 15,000 calls a day, “20 seconds of deal with time actually provides up.” With this diminished common deal with time, MedStar can take extra calls and cut back agent time, liberating them as much as do higher-level duties.

MedStar now schedules over 10,000 appointments per week with the brand new system. The system has additionally enabled brokers to work remotely or on hybrid schedules, which was not the case earlier than. “This has actually enabled not solely an enchancment to our sufferers, however an enchancment to our brokers. Now they’ve the flexibleness to work outdoors of the workplace.”

MedStar Well being and Cisco Going Ahead

Other than exploring the usage of different channels like e mail and chat, MedStar can be trying ahead to integrating Webex Join with its digital well being file, which can permit brokers to see affected person info (comparable to lab outcomes and appointments) with out having to look it up manually. Kristina expects this integration to save lots of much more time per name. The corporate can be focused on utilizing Cisco AI Assistant to assist brokers with complicated appointment scheduling protocols.

Kristina finishes the interview saying, “Cisco Webex Contact Heart is a core a part of our affected person entry technique. It has enabled us to extend affected person entry and to centralize.”