The value in offering a nurse advice line seems intuitive -- patients can speak with a healthcare professional from the comfort of their home whenever they like and ask questions about specific health concerns, a medication they are taking, or determine whether a trip to the emergency room is necessary. But if you are a manager responsible for your company's nurse advice line, how do you know that the program is operating successfully? How do you get the most out of every dollar that you invest?

Having the right reporting is key to ensuring program success. It will help you make smart decisions on how to promote the service and identify areas of improvement. Below are five data points you will want to monitor closely.

Who is calling?

Reporting should be able to tell you the demographic make-up of those who are utilizing the service -- gender, age, zip code, insurance type, etc. Knowing who is utilizing the service tells you which demographic segments perceive value in the service (e.g. new mothers) so that marketing efforts can be tailored to increase the utilization from these segments. Knowledge related to who is calling also tells an important story about who is not calling. For example, knowing that you are not getting calls from seniors could lead to a targeted marketing campaign related to health concerns affecting seniors.

What are patients calling about?

What are the top health questions and concerns that callers have? Are calls symptom based or informational only? Are callers utilizing an audio health library component of the service? Reporting should indicate how callers are using the service. The answers to these questions can help to determine whether callers are using the service appropriately, and whether there is an opportunity to promote specific health topics that patients might benefit from, but may not be aware of today. For example, if no concerns related to medication questions were reported, there may be an opportunity to promote the nurse advice line as a source for information in medication questions and concerns.

Are there access issues?

For a nurse advice line program to be effective, patients need to be able to access the service without delay. Look at your program's average speed-to-answer (ASA) for incoming calls and look at the percentage of calls that hung-up or were abandoned before being answered. URAC standards indicate that on a monthly basis, the ASA should be 30 seconds or less and the abandonment rate should be 5% or less. Most importantly, make sure that your nurse advice line is supported by a robust quality program that focuses on the individual patient experience.

Are there redirection savings associated with the program?

A key measure of the value of a nurse advice line program is the redirection savings associated with the program. To determine redirection savings, a caller is asked what they would have done if they did not have access to the service (e.g. gone to an emergency department) and this original intent is compared with what the patient is advised to do by the nurse (e.g. administer home care). Values are assigned for each level of care and the redirection savings is calculated.

Looking at redirection savings helps a manager determine whether callers perceive the nurse advice line as an alternative to going to an emergency room or urgent care center. If callers are using the service as an information line and not calling with their symptom based concerns, there may be a big opportunity to change that perception so that patients know to call the nurse advice line before they drive to the emergency room in the middle of the night.

Are callers satisfied with the service?

Finally, it is essential for a manager to have real feedback from patients regarding their satisfaction with the nurse advice line service. Did the caller find the nurses advice helpful? Would they call again? Do they have any suggestions for improving the service? Tracking satisfaction rates over time can signal trends in the performance of the service, and can also give a manager key insights into possible program enhancements.

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As you manage your nurse advice line program, keep these key data points in mind. Also, remember that each population and program is different. If you have specific goals that you are trying to meet, make sure that your reporting can capture the custom data points required to measure success, and that they can be modified over time as programs change and new referrals or targeted campaigns are introduced.

Also, explore the opportunity to have real time access to your reports so that you can analyze results and make decisions as needed. If the information is available, you will be able to make an informed decision, instead of an educated guess, and get the most of your nurse advice line program.