April 13 was Day One of operations for Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States (KPMAS) Specialty Contact Center (SCC). Twenty-Eight trained agents scheduled from 7a.m. to 7p.m. handled calls from members making appointments for Radiology, Head and Neck, Audiology, Pulmonary, and Urology Specialty departments.
“Our goal is to provide a consistent, high quality standard experience for our members every time they call. By having all calls route to a centralized location, we are better positioned to see the trends and staff for this. In addition, all of our calls are recorded which allows us to focus on the quality of our work. Our goal is to exceed the expectations of our members,” said KPMAS Executive Director, Clinical Contact Center Services, Nancy Van Maren.
Van Maren (pictured at the Specialty Call Center) is pleased with the results that the SCC team has made to date. “On our first day of operations, we had 565 incoming calls for specialties and 857 incoming calls for Radiology. For the specialty calls, 95% were answered within 30 seconds and the average speed of answer was 5 seconds. For the Radiology calls, 60% were answered within 30 seconds and the average speed of answer was 1:06 minutes,” Van Maren said.
Van Maren expects to increase staff as the team prepares for Day One of phase II on June 29th. During phase II, the following specialty calls will route to the SCC: Allergy; Anesthesiology – Pain Management; Cardiology; Gastroenterology; Nephrology; Neurology; Orthopedics; and Podiatry.
The centralization of specialty calls is a process being conducted over a four-phase period that began April 13, with 75 percent of specialty calls to be routed to the SCC by year end. The centralization process is in partnership and accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
We are excited that the SCC will provide improved phone service and a consistent consumer experience. There will be additional communications as we prepare for upcoming phases of the centralization of specialty calls.
Thank you for your patience and support during this transition.
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