Partnering With Our Customers to Accelerate Speed to Care
The past 12 months have been difficult in more ways than we can count. But, while we lament the struggles and mourn the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the United States, we can also take stock of the victories, accomplishments, innovations, and breakthroughs achieved in the age of COVID-19. We can even appreciate some of the ways healthcare has changed for the better.
To quote our Chief Clinical Officer Kelly Conklin, who spent 20 years as a trauma and ER nurse, “These ‘unprecedented times,’ challenging and sad though they’ve been, are the impetus for a lot of promising change in the world of healthcare, and I’m optimistic that the ‘new normal’ is going to be a friendlier, more convenient, and more modern experience.”
COVID-19 Demanded a Flexible Response
At PerfectServe, our COVID experience has been focused on supporting the hundreds of healthcare organizations that use our technology every day. Infectious disease doesn’t ask permission to spread, so deploying PerfectServe’s technology quickly and effectively has been key to our efforts. We started with an offer of free software and services for customers. As time went on, use cases became more varied.
Initial Wave in March 2020
- Supported curbside testing coordination.
- Built a new platform to enable hospitals on lockdown to communicate with patients’ family members from the core PerfectServe system.
- Facilitated news, announcements, and other mass communication for employee and clinician alignment on treatments, procedures, and protocols. (Core communication traffic increased by 400%.)
Mid-Pandemic
- Reduced infection risk for clinicians by allowing them to use their mobile devices to round on less acute COVID patients.
- Enabled quick and app-less telehealth visits as clinics remained closed.
- Offered a Rapid Surge Scheduling solution to help organizations easily build and update provider schedules as available staff, patient load, and even hospital facilities changed rapidly.
Reopening
- Enabled a virtual waiting room capability to help clinics adhere to safety protocols as certain facilities reopened
Vaccine Rollout
- Facilitated the communication of vaccine procedures and distribution of information within clinical care teams.
- Currently leveraging Lightning Bolt’s Access Optimization capability to build optimized provider schedules based on time taken to vaccinate patients—using average vaccination throughput as a driver for provider schedule creation.
The growing list of new use cases reflects how PerfectServe has embraced the agility required to be an effective technology partner for healthcare organizations. To echo Sachin Jain’s recent column for Forbes, Change does not have to be slow, plodding, and hyper-rational. At the height of the COVID-19 crisis, healthcare organizations showed remarkable agility because the situation demanded it.”
We know how important communication and coordination are for care delivery, and we’ve delivered solutions that meet the needs of a once-in-a-century moment.
- Pull together a team to launch a new patient communication platform in a few weeks?
We can do that. - Rethink our implementation protocols to execute a virtual multi-site go-live for a large health system?
We can do that too. - Launch an easy-to-use, fast-to-deploy video visit platform that enables providers to reach more of their patient population while in-person visits are discouraged?
We’re on it—and we’ll do it quickly.
A couple of customers shared some thoughts about the support PerfectServe provided as their organizations ramped up COVID-19 response efforts:
“When COVID hit, we had to look for alternative virtual solutions in an attempt to connect with all of our patients. PerfectServe was able to quickly help us stand up their video platform to assist in certain situations. They were able to understand and meet our patients’ needs.”
– Andrew Bradford, Director of Virtual Health, St. Elizabeth Physicians
“As far as COVID support from PerfectServe, implementing the Lightning Bolt Rapid Surge Scheduling solution was a very simple process. I was able to add and change assignments as needed, which I have always been able to do, but the most helpful was when we had to add more support personnel on the fly. Having that flexible scheduling capability was critical during such an uncertain time, and the whole PerfectServe team was a huge help.”
– Sandee Leslie, Practice Program Coordinator, St. Luke’s Health System (Nampa and Meridian Medical Centers)
Amplifying Diverse Voices
2020 challenged companies to think differently in many ways. We’ve been reminded time and time again that recognizing and amplifying diverse voices makes a business stronger, wiser, and more inclusive. PerfectServe’s Diversity & Inclusion (DE&I) Advisory Council led the charge to adopt a revamped diversity charter for the company, and a simple but powerful new motto permeates all DE&I efforts:
“Different is Perfect.”
PerfectServe works with hospitals and practices in every corner of the country, and we want our team members to reflect the diversity of thought, background, and experience that we see in our customers—and our customers’ patients—every single day. This work never ends, and our CEO, Guillaume Castel, constantly emphasizes the egalitarian nature of healthcare:
“No matter who you are, where you come from, what you believe, or what you look like, we all need care at some point in our lives.”
– Guillaume Castel, Chief Executive Officer, PerfectServe
Healthcare affects everyone, and that means everyone should have a seat at the table.
To recap, a lot has been learned in the last year:
- We listened closely to customers so we could address their most pressing needs with our solutions—and we created new solutions along the way.
- We tweaked, reworked, and updated processes to get work done more efficiently than ever in a virtual environment.
- We found new ways to reinforce a company culture that starts with inclusivity and committed to growing on that momentum.
- We saw real life in stark relief as Zoom calls were graced with—not interrupted by—pets, family members, friends, and everything in between.
More than 100 million COVID vaccine doses have now been administered in the United States, and as a glimmer of normalcy looms on the horizon, rest assured that PerfectServe will emerge from the pandemic with clarity of purpose and a steadfast commitment to customers: With our technology and the talented employees who make our company tick, we will continue to accelerate speed to care by making collaboration more intuitive, scheduling more optimized, and communication more effective.
Would you like to learn more about how we can help your organization thrive with better communication, scheduling, and/or collaboration?