1to1 Magazine Demo

best practices Putting Care in Patients’ Hands Healthcare firms are finding cost-saving ways to improve the customer experience. h ospitals, clinics, and other managed healthcare concerns are offsetting the burden of growing costs with operational efficiencies that put customers in control. By shifting administrative tasks away from medical professionals and toward automated healthcare customer service systems, some healthcare firms are not only empowering customers, they’re becoming leaders in customer-focused processes. Strategically leveraging such technologies as voice self-service, automated record search, and even appointment reminders via text, these organizations are attempting to elevate the customer service approach in the healthcare industry. “What we are seeing is a strong drive toward improving the patient experience,” says Wes Rishel, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “It’s not that hospitals…don’t want to save money—they do—but that’s not the primary driver. It’s more about the fact that they are competing for the patient as never before.” And those patients are looking for support. “As people take on more responsibility for their healthcare spending, there’s a growing need for more robust services,” adds John Bahl, head of online product design at healthcare benefits company Aetna. “Historically it’s been difficult for [patients] to find the resources they need. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to provide a one-stop shop for those resources?’” Aetna is doing just that, via Aetna SmartSource, which is a personalized health and health benefits search engine. The tool, currently being tested among 30,000 employees and expected to begin rolling out to consumers next year, is designed to give personalized results based on an individual’s health plan, specific health condition, and geographic location. Once a user enters a medical search term, SmartSource returns health information specific to the query, as well as a list of doctors in the user’s local area who participate in their health plan; commonly used medications and treatment options; estimated healthcare costs; and Aetna programs and discounts that can help members manage their health needs. “This is really an effort to integrate Aetna’s content and data from various different resources, including multiple Aetna Web properties,” Bahl says. “It’s designed to quickly get our members the information they’re looking for, and it facilitates our need to send targeted messages to our members.” “It’s designed to quickly get our members the information they’re looking for, and it facilitates our need to send targeted mesages.” Diagnosis: time crunch Also at issue is the amount of time being spent communicating between a patient and physician. A Journal of General Internal Medicine report found that 83 percent of family physicians in HMO settings, and 54 percent of those in small group practices, said they needed more time per every patient visit. Acting to address that need is InfoMedics Inc., which works with pharmaceutical companies to supplement physician/patient communications, focused on specific medications. “We believe, given that we probably can’t improve those time pressures, we can at least take some of it away by finding ways to help that relationship that are not centered around Aetna’s SmartSourceTM tool is designed to deliver personalized results based on an individual’s health plan, specific health condition, and geographic location. the office visit,” says Dr. Stanley Wulf, vice president and chief medical officer for InfoMedics. Typically used by pharmaceutical companies when trying new medications, InfoMedics invites patients to join their program when receiving a new prescription. At that time they take a survey (usually phone based) to get a baseline of a patient’s individual profile like his condition and prescription information. Within a few weeks InfoMedics follows up with an additional survey to track the patient’s experiences with the prescription. A report is then sent to the physician before the next office visit, thus saving time. “We’ve found the average ROI for the pharmaceutical companies is about six to one,” Wulf says, based on the physicians’ satisfaction with the program, as well as on satisfied patients’ recommendations. InfoMedics hopes to soon roll out a patient adherence component to track—and, it is hoped, to improve—how often a patient actually takes his prescription, as well as what barriers exist for taking a particular medication. Currently, about one third of the prescriptions written in the U.S. go unfilled, Wulf says. > Kevin Zimmerman September/October 2008 11 www.1to1media.com http://www.1to1media.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of 1to1 Magazine Demo

1to1 Magazine Demo Contents 1to1media.com Editor's Note Feedback Putting Care in Patients' Hands Loyalty at Work Redefining the Contact Center Agent Introducing Enterprise 2.0 Cigna Dental Drills for Loyal Customers On the Beat 19 Ways to Succeed Miami Heat Schools Its Staff on Sales and Service Marketing Lends a Helping Hand More Than Meets the Eye Customer Service by Committiee Textron's Business Soars by Tracking Customer Loyalty Resources Contact Center Agent as Trusted Advisor Mastering Global CRM Face to Face with Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D.

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