Transforming the Impact of Central Scheduling

Objectives

A leading regional hospital system partnered with Authenticx to dive deeper into its Central Scheduling calls. While scheduling agents had consistently been delivering a high level of customer service, they still found themselves in one of three common situations seemingly outside of their control:

• Callers often sought medical advice, which the agents were not authorized to deliver
• Callers found themselves caught in a frustrating loop within one of several different specialty referral processes, which the agents had limited visibility into
• Callers expressed disappointment and confusion when they were unable to schedule or reschedule an expedited appointment, which was not at the discretion of the agents

In order to better understand and quantify these friction points — and ultimately provide a more patient-centric Central Scheduling experience — we collaboratively implemented the following objectives:

• Leverage full-volume conversational insights in the Authenticx platform
• Uncover confusion points using real patient voices
• Unpack the relationship between referral barriers and Central Scheduling
• Activate insights to drive process and coaching improvements

Authenticx in Action  

Drawing from the entire universe of Central Scheduling calls, Authenticx used both human listening and AI analysis to provide insights on what drivers led to the most frustration and confusion for patients and family caregivers.

In addition, we used targeted listening to provide agents with Quality analysis and feedback. The Authenticx solution is capable of identifying clear coaching opportunities for displaying empathy with patients when met with an obstacle or providing disappointing news.

Finally, Authenticx also conducted an Eddy Effect analysis (our proprietary measure of customer friction) using both human-analyzed and generative AI-assisted data that helped quantify which specialties were associated with the most significant referral-process pain points.

Results  

In a collaborative Insights Session with Authenticx data-backed storytellers, leaders from across the system’s CX, operations, and specialty groups listened to real patient voices detailing their experiences and results from scheduling calls. By analyzing the entire universe of these calls, Authenticx was able to quickly provide examples of both conversations warranting improvement and best-in-class training examples.

On the Quality front, Authenticx identified the Manages Expectations agent skill (calculated as a percentage) as one to explore and improve; by developing updated scripting, better clarity on referrals, and improved empathy skills, the scheduling workgroup saw this skill increased from a starting score of 78% to over 90% in just two months.

The Authenticx Eddy Effect analysis also yielded deep insights of the system’s six specialty groups involved with referral scheduling. One in particular was causing patients to get stuck in their journey at nearly twice the rate of the other five. Leaders used this trending analysis to conduct a process analysis and eradication of referral incongruities, taking an important first step toward a more holistic, patient-centric scheduling practice.

Why It Matters 

In many health systems, Central Scheduling can be put in no-win situations. But with increased visibility into how patients navigate barriers in the scheduling process, hospital systems displaying conversational intelligence are presented with an exciting paradigm shift: scheduling becoming the “canary in the coal mine.”

What does this shift entail? With targeted human and AI analysis, these calls provide valuable insights not just about pain points and successes within the Central Scheduling workgroup, but also describe (and even help predict) how the conflicting and confusing nature of myriad specialty referral processes can lead to patient and caregiver frustration across other areas of the health system.

For CX, scheduling, and operations leaders at provider organizations, the insights from Central Scheduling are vital: even though scheduling agents cannot provide care, create appointment times out of thin air, or fix complex referral processes, they are often first in line to dictate the overall difference between a positive patient experience and a negative one.

Interested in learning more about how Authenticx can level up your scheduling intelligence? Lets have a conversation.

What We Heard

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About Authenticx

Authenticx was founded to analyze and activate customer interaction data at scale. Why? We wanted to reveal transformational opportunities in healthcare. We are on a mission to help humans understand humans. With a combined 100+ years of leadership experience in pharma, payer, and healthcare organizations, we know first-hand the challenges and opportunities that our clients face because we’ve been in your shoes.

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