SironaHealth's Medical Call Center Blog

We love to discuss Quality Improvement (QI) and service level standards here at SironaHealth. Maintaining a firm handle on our call center metrics is not only crucial to the success of our company, but it’s also critical to ensuring that the patients we serve receive the care they need as quickly as possible.

When evaluating how you measure the effectiveness of your medical call center, you should ask yourself three questions:

1. What metrics should be tracked by my medical call center?
2. How should these metrics be reported?
3. What defines an appropriate service level?

Not sure if your metrics are up to par? Not a problem. To help drive quality within the tele-health industry, independent organizations like URAC have established benchmarks and accreditation programs to ensure health call centers provide timely, confidential, and accurate health information and advice to consumers. Successful medical contact centers must actively monitor and follow these standards in order to gain—and maintain—program results.

In short: service level standards set the foundation for effectively managing health call center programs.

For example, here are four performance metrics related to telephone triage programs.

Speed of Answer
Speed of Answer measures the amount of time it takes for an inbound caller to reach a call center agent or registered nurse (RN). Typically, medical call centers measure this metric in seconds (3 rings = 15 seconds) and report on this statistic as a monthly average.

Call Blockage Rate
Call Blockage refers to any call that is not received by an inbound call center and results in the caller receiving a busy signal. This metric is typically represented in terms of calls blocked as a percentage of calls offered.

Abandonment Rate
Abandonment Rates refer to inbound calls that are disconnected by the call originator before being answered by a live person. This metric is typically represented in terms of caller hang-ups after 30 seconds as a percentage of calls offered.

Registered Nurse Call Back Time
Registered Nurse Call Back Time measures the amount of time it takes for an RN to call a person back once a request is made to speak with a nurse. Call back requests can come from inbound calls answered by non-clinical call center agents; requests submitted via the Web; or through any other electronic method, such as e-mail. Medical call centers typically measure this metric in minutes and report on this statistic as a monthly average.

It’s important to note: monitoring performance metrics is just one component of an effective quality program. But these metrics are an important indicator of whether a contact center is providing the quality of services that your patients need and expect. By choosing a partner that is accredited by URAC, you are choosing a health call center with a documented foundation for quality. And that means your patients get the care they need, when they need it.

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