Speech Technology - October 2008 - (Page 34)

>> SUCCESS STORIES which is headquartered in Schaumberg, Ill. “Our focus— and it’s very key to our brand—is to have every patient talk to a live person.” But the inability to reach a specialist at all, or without enduring long delays, was hurting CTCA’s reputation. “Patients make the decision to come to us on their own. There are no referrals; they see an ad or hear about us through word-of-mouth, and then call for more information,” Eckes says. “Now imagine seeing a wonderful ad on TV [for CTCA], calling, and you can’t get through.” The problem was that CTCA had been using a legacy phone system that placed all calls on shared lines and hunt groups. Furthermore, the phone system handled each of the four regional treatment centers CTCA operates—in Philadelphia, Seattle, Zion, Ill., and Tulsa, Okla.— as independent facilities isoCancer Treatment Centers of America rolls out VoIP and IP contact lated from each other and center solutions to improve patient care | BY LEONARD KLIE from corporate headquarters. “We knew we had to come bout 1.4 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this to a strategic platform that would take year, according to the American Cancer Society. Cancer our growing organization and let it be Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) is working to reverse viewed as one,” Eckes recalls. the high death rate (about 40 percent) from this disease So for the past few years, CTCA has through not only medical approaches to help advanced-stage cancer been rolling out Cisco Systems’ Unified patients, but through nutritional counseling, physical therapy, and Contact Center Enterprise solution, even spiritual support. Another way it’s doing this is through a 24along with a Voice over Internet Protocol hour Oncology Information Specialist telephone service that lets (VoIP) network, across all of its facilities. cancer patients call for more information about the disease and disThat rollout to the existing facilities cuss their conditions and treatment options. continued through the fall of 2007, but With a support and treatment specialist just a phone call away, the the project is still an ongoing effort as PERSONAL CARE IS A SELLING POINT FOR service is one of CTCA’s biggest selling points. With its old phone sysCTCA moves forward with the construcCANCER TREATMENT CENTERS OF AMERICA, tem, however, only one of every 12 patients who called the service was tion of a fifth treatment facility in AND THE MAIN able to get through to a specialist right away. Goodyear, Ariz., that is scheduled to open REASON IT NEEDED TO UPGRADE ITS “Every time a patient calls, it’s a moment of truth. He needs to talk in 2009. The fully redundant Cisco sysCONTACT CENTER to someone,” says Chad Eckes, chief information officer at CTCA, TECHNOLOGIES. tem delivers intelligent contact routing, Unified in Care and Communications 34 | Speech Technology OCTOBER 2008 www.speechtechmag.com http://www.speechtechmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Speech Technology - October 2008

Speech Technology - October 2008 Contents Editor’s Letter Industry View Inside Outsourcing Interact Keynoter Highlights the Shrinking Technological World Former Hacker Tackles IVR and Biometrics ‘Press 1’ for Caller Thoughts Soundbytes Voice Vote A New Dragon Emerges Overheard/Underheard An Emotional Mess Emotional Intelligence The Case for Call Recording Unified in Care and Communications An Education in E-Learning Guest Column Standards Speech Solutions Voice Value Forward Thinking

Speech Technology - October 2008

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