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HCA Phone Makeover

The way an employee answers a phone sets the tone for a conversation – and the relationship the caller will share with an organization. Healthcare Associates (HCA), BIDMC’s on-site primary care practice, is finding ways to ensure that those first encounters are positive.
Before HCA’s recent telecommunications makeover, 30,000 patient callers each month were put on hold for an average of more than a minute. It was a minute too long.

The root of this and other phone problems, says HCA Operations Manager Christine Healey, was that practice assistants were trying to do too many things at once and phone-answering responsibilities were unclear.

In BIDMC’s new strategic plan, improving phone service at HCA was identified as a priority. A team focused on this issue became one of several throughout BIDMC charged with improving efficiency and service.

Patient Services Representative Francine Patterson

Consequently, in early 2004, HCA set out to retrain employees and find additional staff for a newly centralized phone service. Dana 9 is now the professional home for 12 HCA staff members whose sole job is to answer phones. During training, employees worked with nurses to practice medical scenarios that could arise. Providers, interpreter services and other departments provide additional information.

According to Patient Services Representative Tara Morash, it’s rewarding to be part of the team. “It is a great feeling not only to love my job,” she says, “but also to know that my co-workers and supervisors are as committed as I am to giving our patients and providers the best possible service we can.”

Now, the average phone call is answered in 25 seconds, and messages are delivered in an accurate and timely manner. According to Healey, “We saw areas to enhance our system and customer service and we are pursuing every opportunity to do so.”

Tara Morash

HCA’s Centralized
Phone Service

Before Phone Makeover
• 10 percent abandoned call rate
• Average speed of answer
1.29 min/sec
• 35 percent of calls answered in <20 seconds

Progress to Date
• 3 percent or less abandoned call rate
• Average speed of answer <25 seconds
• 69 percent of calls answered in <20 seconds

Target Goal
• 3 percent or less abandoned call rate
• Average speed of answer
<15 seconds
• 80 percent of calls answered in <20 seconds

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Published monthly for the people of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to build community, communicate direction, foster pride and recognize accomplishments.

Produced by Beth Israel Deaconess communications, (66)7-7300

director, internal communications:
   Cindy Whitcome
managing editor:
   Valerie Hope Goldstein
print layout & design:
   Jen McGrath & Jane Hayward
web layout & design:
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Contributing Writers:
   Angela Donahue, Bonnie Prescott   and Marty Querzoli
contributing archivist:
    Ruth Freiman
contributing photographers:
   Oran Barber, Bruce Wahl


© BIDMC, Boston, MA, USA, 2004. All rights reserved. Material may be reproduced only with the express written consent of communications.














Cancer Patient Navigator
Marks First Anniversary
(L-r) June Lattimore, R.N., B.S.N., family practice nurse, confers with Williams

Andrea Williams serves as BIDMC’s cancer patient navigator, a year-old position developed and supported by BIDMC’s Multicultural Cancer Task Force to help patients – particularly those from diverse backgrounds – access cancer care services. Here, Williams recalls one memorable patient:

My first patient was a 56-year-old woman, black like myself, diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She was described as uncommunicative, silently staring ahead in fear. When we met, I asked the first question that came to mind: Did she understand what was happening?

It was then she made her first sounds – she started to cry.

Growing up in Selma, Alabama, all that my patient understood was when a family member went to a hospital, they never returned. Now, she was facing cancer: the equivalent of a death sentence. And all she could think about was that she would never again see her home in Selma.

As cancer patient navigator for BIDMC, I work with patients of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds throughout greater Boston. My goal is to direct patients through the process with as little stress as possible, allowing them to focus on fighting the disease. Foremost, this means acting as a liaison between the patient and medical team. My job also involves enlisting interpreters, arranging financial support for those without insurance, coordinating treatment services, providing access to community resources and more.

I’ve found that while most logistical problems can be overcome, the greatest obstacle remains “perception.” In the case of my first patient, she believed anyone going into a hospital would not come out. It’s a hard perspective to fight cancer from, but then, things started to change.

First, my patient began to open up, discussing her fears and asking questions. She became involved, learning cancer could be treated and even beaten. She realized there were too many stresses involved in this battle and reached out and received support she hadn’t known existed. A close relationship developed with her oncologist, BIDMC’s Anna Berkenblit, M.D. My patient also gained a reinvigorated sense of spirituality by turning to her church.

Understanding had triumphed, and her perception changed. Though once uncommunicative, diagnosed with hard-to-treat cancer, my patient eventually walked out of the hospital. From there, her journey continued to Selma, her childhood home, where she continues to live today – cancer-free.

Information on BIDMC’s Cancer Navigator Program: (66)7-3429

Sun., June 13,
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A Celebration of Life 2004 (in conjunction with National Cancer Survivors' Day)

BIDMC and its Patient-to-Patient, Heart-to-Heart Program are hosting a day of education, celebration and community for people touched by cancer. Celebration 2004, our eleventh annual event, will include more than two dozen workshops presented by BIDMC and community experts and a panel of cancer survivors who will tell their stories.

Boston Red Sox President and CEO Larry Lucchino will deliver the keynote address, and Hester Hill Schnipper, L.I.C.S.W., oncology social work at BIDMC, will give a speech entitled "After Cancer: Challenge and Transformation." There will also be special forums on Prostate Cancer, Breast Cancer and Hematological Cancers/Bone Marrow Transplantation. This wonderful day includes a continental breakfast, lunch, music, art, and a unique opportunity to be with hundreds of others who are living, and living well, with cancer. A full schedule of the day's events will be posted on the General Web portal. BIDMC staff and patients are encouraged to attend. There is no charge to attend Celebration of Life.

Harvard Medical School Quadrangle,
200 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA

Information/registration: (63)2-8037