Three Strategies for Optimizing Healthcare Contact Centers

Imagine this: a patient urgently needs to reschedule a procedure. They call the provider's office, only to be placed on hold for what feels like an eternity. Frustration mounts as they navigate a labyrinth of automated prompts. Eventually, they hang up in frustration, their issue unresolved and their trust in the provider diminished.

This scenario is all too common and highlights the critical importance of efficient contact center operations in healthcare.

Patient expectations about how and when they interact with their providers are evolving, and contact centers need to evolve to deliver exceptional customer service. Generally, contact center leaders rely on a set of best practice key performance indicators (KPIs), including service level, average speed of answer, average handling time, abandonment rate, and first contact resolution, as the foundation for running a contact center. While tracking these metrics provides valuable insights into operational efficiency, true optimization extends beyond this. It requires rethinking the flow of communications, breaking down system inefficiencies, and redesigning workflows for seamless patient interactions.

Here are three ways to make your contact center more efficient and patient centric.

1. Clearly Define Contact Origin

Distinguishing between contact origins is essential for accurately estimating volumes and understanding engagement patterns across all communication channels. This involves identifying the medium (e.g., phone, chat, email, portal message, text, social media, web form) and customer (e.g., patient, provider, vendor) for each contact, as outlined in table 1.

TABLE 1: Contact Origin Overview

In our experience, most contact centers clearly understand their contact origins; however, those that don't may encounter issues with accurate forecasting. Specifically, complications arise when phone systems provide more than one level of reporting for a certain call, depending on each segment of the call cycle (e.g., inbound-inbound versus inbound-outbound). With accurate information, management can determine how many inbound versus callback versus outbound calls present to the contact center and use that data to support organizational planning (e.g., as an input into staffing tools).

2. Eliminate Double Counting

Double counting occurs when the same patient interaction is recorded multiple times across different communication channels or follow-ups, inflating the perceived workload. In order to accurately represent the workload at each stage of the call, it's essential to avoid double counting interactions. This requires a clear understanding of how interactions are tracked from start to finish. For instance, if a patient calls the clinic, is called back by the clinic, and also texts and emails the clinic, each interaction must be counted to accurately estimate staffing needs.

Additionally, call centers should group all interactions for a single patient—such as calls transferred between agents, callbacks within the same call cycle, and multichannel communications (e.g., phone, text, and email)—to ensure interactions are counted consistently without skewing the data. Grouping these as a single thread will (1) offer a more precise view of the workload, leading to better staffing decisions, and (2) provide an accurate representation of patient engagement across all channels.

3. Seek Out System Limitations

Operators must proactively identify and address limitations within the phone system and across all communication channels, including those related to software, phone tree configuration, and hardware. For instance, do patients experience different challenges when interacting with phone trees versus using mobile apps or website forms? To identify obstacles, each channel should be tested from a user’s perspective, using the steps below.

• Step One: Simulate typical interactions to spot areas where the process may cause confusion or break down. Gather feedback from patients or analyze data to identify touch points where patients struggle or abandon tasks. 
• Step Two: Document these limitations in current processes by drafting a step-by-step workflow visualization (e.g., using process mapping techniques). Often, working with the telecom team or vendor to map this out is beneficial.
• Step Three: For omnichannel workflows, create a journey map of patient interactions across channels. Collaborate with telecom, IS, and contact center leaders to assess each step, identifying any limitations at each stage.
• Step Four: Prioritize solutions by impact.

Table 2 highlights common roadblocks across communication channels during key stages of the patient journey. It also includes recommended actions and assigns a priority level to help operators focus on critical improvements.

TABLE 2: Patient Journey Map Across Communication Channels

Taking Action: A Checklist

Efficient contact center operations are crucial in healthcare for enhancing patient experience and reducing operational costs. Operators should not only be familiar with the foundational metrics and associated KPIs but also continuously build on them by improving the underlying processes.

Accordingly, we recommend using the checklist below to optimize your contact center operations. By implementing these strategies, your organization can make operational decisions with a higher level of confidence, ensuring your contact center is patient-centric and efficient.

Edited by Emily Johnson

Published February 28, 2025