With PerfectServe, Fairfield Medical Center cut nurse-to-physician contact time by more than half.

• Physician contacts were handled manually by hospital switchboard operators.
• A growing medical staff resulted in an expansion of call schedules, personal contact numbers, individual contact preferences and new communication technologies — all of which were beyond the switchboard’s ability to track and maintain.
• Contact breakdowns were commonplace, frustrating both nurses and physicians.
• No one could determine how many physician calls were being made, to whom, or where they originated. Process improvement was not possible for the simple reason that no measurable process existed.

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 90 days.
• PerfectServe determined that the hospital makes over 11,000 physician calls per month — 132,000 each year.
• More than 20 percent of all physician contacts are now completed in real-time.
• Each physician contact follows a single, standardized process that fully accommodates the individual rules and preferences of each medical staff member.
• The University of Colorado, comparing Fairfield Medical Center (FMC) with three other hospitals that do not use PerfectServe, found:
• Repeat phone calls to physicians were required 81 percent less frequently at FMC than at a hospital that does not use PerfectServe.
• FMC callers are 10 times more likely to reach a physician in two minutes or less than are the callers from a non-PerfectServe hospital.
• The ICU at FMC was able to reach physicians 71 percent more quickly than an ICU in a non-PerfectServe hospital.
• Fairfield Medical Center recovers up to 12,100 hours of direct patient care per year — which represents a productivity increase valued at $490,000 annually.