With PerfectServe, Clinton Memorial Hospital completes 40 percent of all physician contacts in real-time.

• Physician contacts were handled manually by hospital switchboard operators. Therefore, the necessities of routine call handling impinged upon urgent physician contacts.
• Nurses experienced lengthy hold times when leaving physician messages with the switchboard
• Nurses complained about constantly changing physician contact rules and preferences.
• Numerous attempts to standardize physician contact using human-centric processes proved fruitless. Breakdowns were commonplace, frustrating both nurses and physicians.
• Process improvement proved difficult because hospital administrators were unable to analyze such confusing, un-measurable communications practices.

Solution

• PerfectServe established a single directory of all medical staff members, with speed-dial access provided to every department and mobile phones issued to nurses. All the variables governing how each physician was to be reached were assembled in the PerfectServe One-2-One database.
• Dynamic variables, such as on-call schedules and contact preferences, were updated by physicians or their practice administrators via the Web, or by PerfectServe Client Service personnel at the physician’s request.
• Nurses no longer need to maintain on-call schedules and lists of contact numbers for each physician they might need to reach. Instead, they simply press the PerfectServe speed-dial button and enter a 4-digit code or physician’s last name.
• Because each physician’s call schedule is maintained in real-time, nurses calling through PerfectServe are able to reach the correct physician on-call or covering doctor.

Results

• Achieved full deployment of PerfectServe One-2-One, with all medical staff members participating, in just 60 days.
• PerfectServe determined that more than 4,900 physician calls per month — 59,000 per year — are made by hospital staff.
• High physician adoption of real-time contact methods resulted in as many as 40 percent of all physician calls taking place in real time.
• Real-time physician contacts are completed within an average of 2.49 minutes — half what it was before PerfectServe.
• Each physician contact follows a single, standardized process that fully accommodates the individual rules and preferences of each medical staff member.
• Internal analysis indicates that Clinton Memorial Hospital recovers more than 1,900 direct patient care hours per year — representing an annual productivity increase valued at more than $88,000.