Although you may already be involved with the healthcare and medical call center industries, sometimes the numerous acronyms used can still throw you off. Certainly some of these seemingly hodgepodged letters are quite challenging to the newcomer. In an effort to help you save some face when presented with these phrases, here are some common acronyms used in reference to medical call centers and what they stand for.

CALL CENTER QUALITY

QA - Quality Assurance
QC - Quality Control
URAC - Utilization Review Accreditation Commission
NCQA - The National Committee for Quality Assurance
HIPAA - Health Information Portability Act
PHI - Protected Health Information
JCAHO - Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
HEDIS - Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set

CALL CENTER METRICS

ASA - Average Speed of Answer
CHT - Call Handle Time
ABN - Average Time to Abandonment
ATB - All Trunks Busy

Common Metrics Phrases that aren't Acronyms

Average RN Call Back Time
Average Blocked Call Rate

MEDICAL CALL CENTER

NAL - Nurse Advice Line
DM - Disease Management
CM - Care Management
AHL - Audio Health Library
CRM - Customer Relationship Management
PRM - Patient Relationship Management
WFM - Workforce Management
RTS - Rapid Triage Screening
MSR - Medical Service Representative
RN - Registered Nurse
CBT - Computer Based Training
TED - Triage Encounter Document
TDD - Telecommunications Device for the Deaf
VoIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol
EMR / EHR - Electronic Medical Record / Electronic Health Record

Many of these phrases are most likely to pop up in call center related articles, websites, conferences, meetings, etc. It is important to know the meanings since you can quickly lose sight of what you are reading or listening to if you don't understand the industry lingo.

Do you have any additional medical call center related acronyms to add? Feel free to post in our comments section!

And just for fun:

SNAIL - Slimy, Noctornal Animal Invading Lettuce