6282006 if disney ran your hospital

Peerless provider data solutions

Extreme Service: Healthcare contact centers bridge from generic transactions to distinctive experiences

to build customer loyalty

Five opportunities to benefit the bottom line with repeat business

A best practice case study solution brief from Health Line Systems’ Academy

Copyright 2008 by Health Line Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.


Page i


TT AA BB LL EE OO FF CC OO NN TT EE NN TT SS I. Executive Summary…….……Page 1 II. Patient Experience Drives

Hospital Selection…………… III. What is Extreme Service?....Page 2 IV. Five Extreme Service

Opportunities……………….….Page 4 V. Conclusion………….………..... Page 12

Special advisors to this solution brief Health Line Systems gratefully acknowledges the valuable contributions of the following organizations and individuals who were particularly generous with their time and expertise:

René Bunting Vice President, Marketing

AtlantiCare Atlantic City, New Jersey

Kelly Faley Director Marketing Technology Sharp HealthCare San Diego, California

Maureen Donzuso Manager, Access Center

AtlantiCare Atlantic City, New Jersey

Susan Bernhard Call Center Manager Lehigh Valley Hospital Allentown, Pennsylvania

Chris Morehouse Call Center Manager Emeritus Lehigh Valley Hospital Allentown, Pennsylvania

Reading time

� Executive Summary: 2 minutes

� Skim text: 10 minutes

� Full text: 30 - 40 minutes


Page 1


I. Executive Summary The patient experience is a key driver of hospital selection. Based on 2007 research from McKinsey and Company, only twenty percent of a commercially insured patient’s hospital choice is based on clinical reputation. Forty-one percent of the hospital selection decision is based on the patient experience. Extreme Service is the intentional shift from a generic “we provide excellent service” to a culture energized by staging extraordinary experiences. Repeat business is generated by delivering unexpected, memorable events. It is the “law of the memorable event”1 that determines loyalty. The healthcare contact center is frequently a first and recurring point of contact with the organization. It provides a singular opportunity to establish and maintain a memorable patient experience both by phone and online. It can bridge the chasm from generic transactions to distinctive patient experiences. Sharp HealthCare in San Diego is a recipient of the 2007 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. AtlantiCare in New Jersey received JD Power’s “Hospital of Distinction for Outstanding Patient Experience.” Both of these organizations have built Extreme Service behaviors into their contact center. Both have utilized their contact centers for purposeful, positive customer engagement. Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network (Lehigh Valley Hospital) in Allentown

1 Fred Lee, If Disney Ran Your Hospital 9½ Things You Would do Differently (Bozeman, MT: Second River Healthcare Press, Sixth printing April 2007), p.50 and 51.

Pennsylvania has been included for a dozen years in US News and World Report’s guide to “America’s Best Hospitals”. They have documented the impact of their contact center on loyalty as measured by repeat business. Five opportunities for healthcare organizations and their contact centers include:

Opportunity #1: Make Extreme Service a budgeted priority

Opportunity #2: Refocus your contact center’s role

Opportunity #3: Take action!

Opportunity #4: Require two vital competencies

Opportunity #5: Document the value of loyalty Conclusion

Senior leadership should fund Extreme Service as a dominant organizational priority. “Leaders unwilling to make this effort may find it increasingly difficult for their hospitals to maintain market share among commercially insured patients as nearby facilities go the extra mile to attract these critically important customers.”2 The healthcare contact center is a proven opportunity to deliver an intentional, profoundly positive first and recurring Extreme Service experience. Concurrently, it provides the database to document the value of repeat business on the bottom line. 2 Kurt D. Grote, John R. S. Newman, and Saumaya S. Sutaria, A Better Hospital Experience, The McKinsey Quarterly, November, 2007.


Page 2


II. Patient ExperienceDrives Hospital Selection

Research from McKinsey and Company in 2007 identifies that for commercially insured patients twenty percent of hospital choice is based on clinical reputation . Eighteen percent is determined by location . Twenty-one percent is influenced by physician preference . Notably, forty-one percent of the hospital selection decision is based on the patient experience .3 Respondents were then asked whether they would switch to a hospital or healthcare organization known for giving patients a positive experience, all things being equal, including the quality of clinical care. More than half, fifty-five percent, said they definitely would. Grote, Newman, and Sutaria summarize the findings: “Hospitals need to do more. Our research indicates that hospitals generate most of their profit margins from commercially insured patients, the very ones who are most likely to weigh nonclinical aspects of visits to care facilities when choosing them.”4

III. What is Extreme Service?

Extreme Service is more than patient satisfaction. It is more than survey scores. In

3 2007 McKinsey survey of >2,000 US patients with commercial insurance or Medicaid and >100 US physicians. Excludes those patients (39% of total surveyed) who can only go to one facility in the community given current health care coverage or severity of condition. 4 Kurt D. Grote, John R. S. Newman, and Saumya S. Sutaria, “A better hospital experience,” The McKinsey Quarterly, 2007 McKinsey and Company.

fact, Extreme Service is more than providing excellent service. Extreme Service is about delivering unexpected, memorable experiences . “In the emergent economy, competition will center on personalized co-creation experiences, resulting in value that is truly unique to each individual.”5 Extreme Service behavior creates unexpected customer delight. Unexpected delight drives loyalty. When healthcare team members define their work as engaging the patient in a memorable experience rather than just trying to give excellent care or excellent service, the shift is tangible. 5 C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy The Future of Competition: Co-creating Unique Value with Customers, (Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2004), p.17

18%

20%41%

21%

Patient Experience

Physician decision

Hospital reputation

Location

How patients choose hospitalsFactors influencing patients’ choice of hospitals(patients allocated 100 points, larger figure = greater importance)

How patients choose hospitalsFactors influencing patients’ choice of hospitals(patients allocated 100 points, larger figure = greater importance)


Page 3


Here’s an example of a healthcare organization that successfully made that shift:

In June 1992, Mid-Columbia Medical Center (MCMC) became the first hospital in the world to implement the Planetree concept of patient-centered care facility wide. Over the years, MCMC has been transformed into a one-of-a-kind center of healing; a place very different from what most people expect of a hospital.

On patient floors, kitchens and dining areas allow patients and families to cook their own meals and enjoy them together. Room service is available. Activity rooms give families and friends inviting, comfortable areas to relax. Libraries are amply stocked with information to allow family members to research medical conditions.

There are no set visiting hours. Guests are free to spend the night close to their loved ones in patient rooms that look and feel like comfortable bedrooms. Nurses’ stations resemble living rooms.

Joe Pine, co-author of The Experience Economy comments on the result. “While people used to drive by MCMC in Dalles to go to the downtown Portland (Oregon) Hospitals,” he says, “Now people drive out of Portland to come to Dalles.”6

“…Look at the success and recognition attained by the hospitals that have adopted variations of the Planetree model,” observes author and consultant Fred Lee. “… every aspect of the patient’s and family’s interactions and accommodations have been carefully scripted and staged to provide a memorable, total experience. They exemplify the conceptual shift that the Disney business model brings to a hospital; the shift from providing services to staging experiences.”7

A healthcare contact center is uniquely positioned to deliver distinctive patient experiences. Prahalad and Ramaswamy8 make this point: “A well-run call center can transform a consumer’s experience from negative to positive, not only by solving problems and answering questions but by offering entirely new ways to enjoy the product or service.” Healthcare contact centers:

�…Include both the phone and Web site and are frequently first points of contact

�…Facilitate personal connection with immediate response to caller concerns

�…Allow communication with as much or as little anonymity as is desired

�…Provide both the personal connection and the data storehouse to support relationships as they move from generic service to memorable experience

6 B. Joseph Pine II, co-author of The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999), as interviewed on “Leadership Today” in October, 2004 by Maximum Impact, Inc. 7 Fred Lee, If Disney Ran Your Hospital 9½ Things You Would do Differently (Bozeman, MT: Second River Healthcare Press, sixth printing April 2007), p. 112 8 C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy The Future of Competition: Co-creating Unique Value with Customers, (Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2004), p.37, 38


Page 4


Extreme Service marks the distinction between delivering a service and staging an experience. The inset box9 traces the progression from commodity to good to service to experience for both coffee and for healthcare contact centers.

IV. Five Extreme Service Opportunities A. Opportunity #1: Make Extreme Service a budgeted priority After patient safety and quality of care, fund Extreme Service as an enterprise-wide priority. If Extreme Service isn’t in the budget, it isn’t a valid priority. 9 Adapted from discussion by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999), p. 1 and 2

There is one document in the organization which clearly reveals the organization’s authentic priorities. While the mission statement is essential to define the organization’s purpose; it is not the mission statement. While the strategic

plan is a vital map to the preferred future; it isn’t the strategic plan. The single document which clearly identifies the organization’s indisputable priorities is… the budget.

For seven years and counting, Sharp HealthCare in San Diego has been “transforming the health care experience.” This initiative, The Sharp Experience, is a funded priority and sets a new standard for experiences with team members, with physicians, with patients. “This initiative touches every aspect of Sharp’s operations. It is part of the strategic plan, budget, evaluations, and even meeting agendas, to name just a few.”10

In their insightful book The Future of Competition, Prahalad and Ramaswamy11 note that informed

consumers have become active participants with the organization in jointly creating value. “In the emergent economy, competition will center on personalized co-creation experiences, resulting in value that is truly unique to each individual.”

10 Observations by Kelly Faley, Director Marketing Technology, Sharp HealthCare ; March, 2008 11 C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy The Future of Competition: Co-creating Unique Value with Customers, (Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2004), p.17

Commodity

Extract

Good

Produce

Service

Deliver

Experience

Stage

Coffee

Futures market coffee beans: $.02 per cup

Grind, package for grocer:

$.25 per cup

Prepare and pour in corner café: $1 per cup

Personalize brew with highlighted

ambience and sense of theatre:

$3-5 per cup

Healthcare

Contact Center

Log on to physician database, self select, look up number, call physician’s office $.01 per call Call or log on to generic national call center for non-clinical referral $5-8 per call

Dialogue with responsive customer service agent with hospital-branded contact center $10-15 per call

Co-create a memorable experience with a professional nurse health coach; triage symptoms, select physicians, services, classes or events with confidence and all the time you need with surprising, personalized support that makes you want to call again $20-30 per call


Page 5


“At Sharp HealthCare , we are on an exciting journey to improve our organization’s culture. We call this culture ‘The Sharp Experience’” because it encompasses all we do at Sharp HealthCare . It involves enhancing the way we interact with and serve our patients and their families, our physicians and our colleagues.

Sharp is transforming healthcare in San Diego by striving to be:

� The best place to work — attracting highly skilled and passionate staff members who are focused on providing quality healthcare and building a culture of teamwork, recognition, celebration and professional and personal growth.

�The best place to practice medicine — creating an environment in which physicians enjoy positive, collaborative relationships with nurses and other caregivers.

�The best place to receive care — providing a new standard of service in the healthcare industry by employing service-oriented individuals who see it as their privilege to exceed the expectations of every patient by treating them with the utmost care, compassion and respect.”12

Commitment to Extreme Service pays off. Sharp HealthCare is a recipient of the 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest Presidential honor for quality, service and performance excellence. Criteria for

selection are based on delivering ever improving value to customers and improving the organization’s overall performance.

Sharp HealthCare is the first healthcare provider in California to receive this honor and was ranked as the number one integrated healthcare system in California by Modern Healthcare. Over the past seven years that The Sharp Experience has been the organization’s driving priority; Sharp HealthCare’s market share has enjoyed an enviable increase.

B. .Opportunity #2: Refocus your contact center’s role

Your contact center provides an important first sampling of the customer experience at your organization. Focus your contact center’s role on delivering a distinctly memorable first experience.

Your contact center is not judged merely against other healthcare call centers. Dr. Jon Anton at Purdue University’s Center for Customer-Driven Quality identifies nearly 200,000 call centers worldwide.13

Your contact center’s role must be to showcase an Extreme Service experience as compared with the best contact centers in any industry. “Consumers expect to get their product/service easily and conveniently. They’ve become accustomed to Amazon®-style service and we need to compete at that level.”14

12 Interview with Kelly Faley, Director Marketing Technology, Sharp HealthCare , February, 2008 and www.sharp.com; Website accessed February 2008. 13 Connections magazine interview with Dr. Jon Anton, July/August 2004 14 Observations by Kelly Faley, Director Marketing Technology, Sharp HealthCare ; March, 2008


Page 6


Contact centers provide vital feedback that can establish the value of the brand in the customer’s mind like no other customer interaction. In 2004, callers who had recently contacted a call center were asked how their experience shaped their image of the company and their willingness to purchase again.15

For 76 percent of respondents, the call center experience was very important or somewhat important to caller perceptions of the organization. A follow-up question identified that following a bad experience with the call center, 63 percent would stop using the organization. The healthcare contact center is an important early indicator of the customer experience at your organization. Leverage the law of the

15 Combining Service Excellence with Profitability “The New Contact Center Best Practices” white paper sponsored by eGain, Dr. John Anton Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality, Benchmark Portal, Inc., March, 2004

memorable event; focus your contact center’s role on delivering a memorable first experience. Sharp Healthcare and AtlantiCare have both focused their contact centers to intentionally deliver an extraordinary experience. These healthcare contact centers have implemented specific performance standards to assure a consistent and distinctive service experience. The call center’s job at Sharp HealthCare is to set the tone for The Sharp Experience, understanding that the call center is frequently the first point of contact. That initial contact must be a positive one. The primary community contact center 82Sharp (non-clinical) and Sharp Nurse Connection® (clinical) intentionally deliver The Sharp

Experience with consistent standards for opening a call, closing a call, transferring a call and for how call waiting is handled. The AtlantiCare Access contact center registered more than 5,000 AtlantiCare team members in enterprise-wide training for customer service standards and customer service skills. Specific, intentional customer service scripting is included in the training. Performance standards ensure that customer interactions across the AtlantiCare organization and specifically that connection with

the AtlantiCare Access contact center provide a strongly positive experience.

26%

50%

24%Very Important

Somewhat Important

Not at all important

How important was your overall call experience in shaping your image of the organization?How important was your overall call experience in shaping your image of the organization?


Page 7

A best practice case study soluti on brief from Health Line Systems’ Academy

C. Opportunity #3: Take action!

Extreme Service contact centers take proactive action to connect with target audiences and deliver a distinctive service experience. Following are examples from AtlantiCare , Sharp HealthCare , and Lehigh Valley Hospital.

AtlantiCare is an integrated delivery system pursuing a vision to build healthy communities by creating an “epidemic of health.” AtlantiCare is committed to five “bests”: Best Quality, Best Customer Service, Best Financial Performance , Best People and Workplace , and Best Community Health. 16

AtlantiCare’s has taken action to support their commitment to “Best Customer Service ”: �A customer service executive was hired with

experience in the hospitality industry to provide insight and leadership.

�Customer research is conducted to assess loyalty and perceptions of clinical quality. Responses are requested on a five-point semantic differential scale: �If a friend or relative needed to be hospitalized, the

likelihood of your recommending ONLY AtlantiCare is…

�Overall, would you rate the quality of care provided as…

�Would you please tell us why you did NOT rate the quality of care as “Excellent” or “Very Good?”

�What could have been done to improve your / your family member’s hospital stay?

�AtlantiCare offers a broad-range of health and wellness services. Would you say the likelihood of your recommending ONLY AtlantiCare to friends and relatives is…?

�The AtlantiCare Access contact center intentionally supports customer service. The contact center: �…Generates a non-accommodation report which

identifies roadblocks to access and / or to satisfying

customers. That information is provided to the appropriate operating units.

For example, the contact center identified long delays in making appointments for cardiology referrals and shared the issue with the Vice President of Clinical Services for resolution.

� …Documents both compliments and complaints. AtlantiCare is installing a system-wide complaint management system which will assure that all customer-facing functions will identify and forward complaints for resolution.

�…Established an enterprise policy for follow-up calls when health screenings are conducted and specific criteria are met, based on American Heart Association guidelines.

For example, a contact center nurse places outreach calls to individuals with hypertension who have readings outside the normal range. The nurse offers educational information, confirms whether they have followed up with their primary care physician (PCP), and if they have not, offers to schedule an appointment with their PCP. This directly supports AtlantiCare’s vision to build healthy communities by partnering with customers to manage their health. 17

�…Partners with targeted groups of individuals in the community who have specific health and wellness needs. Examples are the Diabetes Initiative and Spirit of Women registration, data collection and cross-sell promotion.

�Mystery shopping At Sharp HealthCare , the call center team conducts mystery shopping to assess service levels of other parts of the Sharp organization and identify strategies to help those areas improve service. Their objective is to identify how the experience is handled and to document how it can be improved.

This ongoing documentation of the process encourages each team member to practice and polish their Extreme Service behaviors. The focus of mystery shopping at Sharp HealthCare is to track, trend, and train.

16, 17 Interview with Rene′ Bunting, Vice President Marketing, AtlantiCare and Maureen Donzuso, Manager AtlantiCare Access Center, February, 2008


Page 8


�Post discharge calls At Lehigh Valley Hospital the contact

center team makes post discharge calls for cardiac patients. They conduct a survey at six weeks, at six months and at one year. Survey results support process improvements.

Post discharge calls can improve satisfaction scores. “…hospitals that do discharge phone calls on every patient generally get higher scores on patient satisfaction and loyalty than hospitals that don’t.” 18

�“Navigation system” Lehigh Valley Hospital’s

contact center serves as a personal navigation resource for directions to the hospital. When patients call the contact center en route, call center agents look up the caller’s location on MapQuest® and “talk them in.”

�Preferred scheduling

If a customer has attended one of Lehigh Valley Hospital’s many classes or educational events during the past six months, the contact center honors returning customers with earlier scheduling availability for upcoming classes. While many of the classes fill-up quickly, returning customers are able to confirm their class

18 Fred Lee, If Disney Ran Your Hospital 9½ Things You Would do Differently (Bozeman, MT: Second River Healthcare Press, sixth printing April 2007), p 80.

enrollment first. This service has been appreciated by patients and has stimulated increased class registration and attendance.

D. Opportunity #4: Require two vital competencies Two essential roles enable contact center teams to deliver unexpected service experiences. Individuals must be fluent at both Task and Purpose .19

Task is about the efficient use of resources . Computer, software and telephone proficiency are required. The team member matures from basic competence to excellence to engagement as a fluent “power user.” Task-based skill development is important, but it is not enough.

19 Richard D. Stier for Health Line Systems, Inc . adapted from Webinar by Maritz® Learning, Inc., 2007

Customer satisfactionCustomer satisfaction

Customer ambivalenceCustomer ambivalence

Two critical competencies for healthcare contact ce ntersTwo critical competencies for healthcare contact ce ntersTwo critical competencies for healthcare contact ce nters

PURPOSE:PURPOSE: Delight the customerDelight the customer

TASK:

TASK:Competence

Competence

Customer Customer loyaltyloyalty

Employee

Employee

competence

competence

Employee

Employee

Excellence

Excellence

Employee

Employee

Engagement

Engagement Relationship building

Relationship building

Skill building

Skill building

Source: Richard D. Stier for HealthLine Systems, Inc. adapted from Webinar by Maritz® Learning, Inc., 2007


Page 9


Purpose is about the effective development of relationships . As contact center agents become more proficient at building relationships, the customer response moves from ambivalence to satisfaction, and finally to unexpected delight which drives loyalty.

AtlantiCare requires their contact center agents to be certified in extensive customer service training, including scripted role playing with emphasis on the interrelationship of the contact center with clinical operating units. Contact center performance appraisals influence compensation and include an evaluation of desired relationship-building behaviors.

Lehigh Valley Hospital requires extensive customer service training in addition to daily “team huddles” to address customer service issues and immediate relationship building opportunities. Every weekday morning the contact center manager and staff for that day have a roundtable discussion. Team members are encouraged to review challenging calls, how they strengthened the relationship during the interaction (purpose ), how they documented the call in the software (task ), as well as what they learned for effectively handling similar situations in the future.

They share news of upcoming events including marketing campaigns with call-to-action to the contact center. The manager encourages each team member to make a positive difference for Lehigh Valley Hospital. The “team huddle” is reinforcement training for both task efficiency and relationship effectiveness.

They are in good company. Disney applies their version of the team huddle on a daily basis.

“It is common practice at all Disney facilities and resorts for cast members to meet with their manager every day in a “huddle” in their departments at the beginning of their shift. …At Disney many managers use this effective technique to remind all cast members every day of how they are doing and what they could do better.”20

Sharp HealthCare requires contact center agents to participate in ongoing training in the delivery of The Sharp Experience. Sharp has adapted five relationship-building behaviors (purpose) and made them a requirement for contact center team members. Each of these five contact center “must have” behaviors translates The Sharp Experience from a visual to an auditory environment. While specific “must have” behaviors are identified, The Sharp Experience is not a script, it is not a recipe. It is a pervasive commitment to do whatever it takes to connect with and exceed the customer’s expectation; to value experience above transaction. It is an ethos that drives sustained improvement in customer responsiveness and follow-through.

To provide examples of Extreme Service behaviors which are uniquely desired in healthcare contact centers, we asked Sharp HealthCare , AtlantiCare , and Lehigh Valley Hospital to review twenty-one suggested team member actions. What emerged are fifteen behaviors which were ranked by all three of these exemplary organizations as strongly desired in the healthcare contact center. These Extreme Service behaviors are summarized on the following page.

20 Fred Lee, If Disney Ran Your Hospital 9½ Things You Would do Differently (Bozeman, MT: Second River Healthcare Press, sixth printing April 2007), p 104.


Page 10


Healthcare contact center Extreme Service behavior

“If this behavior occurred in your contact center, it would be a ___ behavior.” (The question is not whether or not this behavior currently occurs.)

Ranking 5 = strongly desired behavior 4 = desired behavior 3 = no preference / doesn’t apply 2 = non-desired behavior 1 = strongly non-desired behavior

Initial contact

1) Script the ideal initial interaction to optimize the first impression 1 2 3 4 5

2) Actively listen, acknowledge and validate feelings: understand what the caller wants most, communicate a smile 1 2 3 4 5 3) Make the contact center a one stop solution: don’t transfer calls, find answers for the caller 1 2 3 4 5 4) Summarize call resolution and any instructions for the caller to check for understanding 1 2 3 4 5

5) Ask: “Is there anything else I can do now to support your positive healthcare experience?” 1 2 3 4 5 6) The organization’s survey moves beyond “caller satisfaction” to measure caller loyalty: after their experience with the contact center how willing are they to refer ONLY to your call center? Importantly, how willing are they to refer ONLY to your organization for their next healthcare need?

1 2 3 4 5

Unexpected value

7) Establish a physician hot line for participating physicians- a separate, priority line with immediate response by the call center to make it easy for physician’s offices to call and identify in-network specialists who are available for referral

1 2 3 4 5

Service recovery

8) Seek first to understand: 1) get the facts 2) listen non-defensively 3) repeat your understanding of the problem 1 2 3 4 5

9) Identify the cause, ask: 1) What happened? 2) What should have happened? 3) What went wrong? 1 2 3 4 5

10) Discuss possible solutions: 1) Ask for caller’s ideas 2) Suggest options 3) Agree on the best course of action 1 2 3 4 5

11) Solve the problem: 1) Remove the cause 2) Take corrective action 3) Ask if customer is satisfied with resolution 1 2 3 4 5

Performance management and measurement

12) Document non-accommodation to identify delays or roadblocks to appointments for needed services; feed information to appropriate operating units to improve processes and expedite access

1 2 3 4 5

13) Document both complaints and compliments and forward both to the appropriate business unit for action and/or resolution 1 2 3 4 5+

14) Performance appraisals which influence compensation include an evaluation of desired extreme service behaviors 1 2 3 4 5

15) Caller loyalty scores are documented in a periodic contact center executive report card, including the financial impact of returning patients 1 2 3 4 5


Page 11


E. Opportunity #5: Document the value of loyalty The contact center represents an important opportunity to document the value of repeat business. Lehigh Valley Hospital’s “pyramid analysis” documents the value of callers who chose to return as patients. The document identifies patient discharges, patient visits and net contribution for four categories of patients: new, dormant, returning, and existing.

Note that the contact center connected with new patients representing 1,666 patient discharges and $7 million in contribution margin. Returning patients who last utilized services one to three years ago represented 11.2 percent or $2.2 million. Existing patients who returned within the last year represented just over 48 percent and $9.4 million in contribution margin.

Pyramid AnalysisPyramid AnalysisLehigh Valley Hospital , 2006 data. Used with permission.

ExistingExistingUtilized services in the past yearUtilized services in the past year

DormantDormantLast utilized servicesLast utilized services

33--5 years ago5 years ago

Total Contribution Margin Total Discharges/VisitsTotal Contribution Margin Total Discharges/Visits$19.5M

1,666 Patient Discharges1,495 Patient Visits

214 Patient Discharges440 Patient Visits

503 Patient Discharges3,162 Patient Visits

864 Patient Discharges23,151 Patient Visits

31,495

NewNewNever Never

utilized utilized services services

oror notnotin 5 yearsin 5 years

$.9M (4.7%)

$2.2M (11.2%)

$9.4M (48.1%)

$7.0M (36%)

Returning Returning Last utilized services 1Last utilized services 1 --3 years ago3 years ago


Page 12


V. Conclusion

Senior leadership should fund Extreme Service as an organizational priority. “Leaders unwilling to make this effort may find it increasingly difficult for their hospitals to maintain market share among commercially insured patients as nearby facilities go the extra mile to attract these critically important customers.”21

The healthcare contact center is a proven opportunity to deliver an intentional, profoundly positive first and recurring Extreme Service experience. Concurrently, it provides the database to document the value of repeat business on the bottom line.

Health Line Systems, Inc.

…is an established leader in the healthcare industry with a 23-year record of client results from proven software and consulting solutions. Health Line Systems’ technologies are the choice of over 1,000 distinguished healthcare organizations throughout the United States and Canada. They address pressing requirements for increased market share and for improved bottom line performance. Echo Access™ and Sharp Focus ® browser-based enterprise and pc-based departmental contact center software solutions are the backbone of impactful Extreme Service experiences delivered by leading healthcare contact centers nationwide. These solutions provide the opportunity to document the value of loyalty as measured by repeat business, and facilitate the generation of incremental revenue, integration with the Web, strengthened operations, and improved return on investment. Please visit www.healthlinesystems.com, or call 800 733-8737 extension 7265, or e-mail us at [email protected]. 21 Kurt D. Grote, John R. S. Newman, and Saumaya S. Sutaria, A Better Hospital Experience, The McKinsey Quarterly, November, 2007.

6282006 if disney ran your hospital

Documents

memorable patient experience

hospital selection decision

extreme service opportunities

outstanding patient

extreme service behaviors

excellent service

generic transactions

distinctive experiences