COO Jeff Brown Celebrates PerfectServe’s 25th Anniversary

PerfectServe celebrated a significant milestone last month, recognizing 25 years of business in the healthcare IT industry. We take great pride in our position as a leading provider of clinical collaboration and provider scheduling technology—it allows us to help our customers improve the day-to-day experience for all members of the care team while enhancing speed to care for patients. As part of the anniversary celebration, we spoke with Chief Operating Officer Jeff Brown about his time as part of the PerfectServe team. Jeff—who has been with the company for two decades—answered questions about his time with PerfectServe, including how things have changed since he started and his favorite thing about working here.

When did you start at PerfectServe, and what is your title and department?

Some people don’t know this, but I’ve actually had two runs at PerfectServe. I was here from 2002 until 2004, and after a brief time elsewhere, I decided to return in 2006. I am currently the Chief Operating Officer, but I also act as our Chief People Officer. 

What drew you to PerfectServe?

Firstly, I love disruptive technologies—technologies that challenge the status quo and aim to achieve something extraordinary. That is exactly what PerfectServe was focused on when I first heard of the company. I was drawn to our first product, which was a technology replacement for the traditional answering service. This challenged how the industry addressed the answering service process; it challenged it boldly and strove for forward-thinking improvements. PerfectServe then figured out how to apply that technology in a hospital environment to replace printed call schedules and contact preference cards. This again challenged the status quo. When I left PerfectServe the first time, I missed the company’s purpose. I missed the drive PerfectServe had to make it easier for healthcare providers to practice medicine, reduce communication breakdowns, and ultimately improve patient care. So I returned!

How has the company changed or grown since you started?

PerfectServe has changed quite a bit over the years. We’ve gone from having less than 1,000 users in Knoxville,TN, to over 600,000 users across several countries. We’ve also gone from addressing just after-hours office challenges to addressing challenges across the entire care continuum. This includes ambulatory, acute, post-acute, and home care challenges. All this change and adaptation is good and honorable; however, three things have not changed. We have always had unbelievably wonderful employees, unbelievably dedicated customers, and an unbelievable passion and culture for helping our customers and the patients they serve.

What is your favorite thing about working at PerfectServe?

My favorite thing about working at PerfectServe is actually three things, similar to the above question. My favorite things are our people, our customers, and our endless pursuit of addressing the widest variety of communication problems in health systems.

What does PerfectServe’s 25th anniversary mean to you?

To me, the 25th anniversary means that we’ve been adding value to our customers and the patients they serve for a really long time. Not many companies last five years, let alone 25 years. This anniversary makes me think about all of the leaders before us, the pioneers who took a chance on PerfectServe so many years ago. Without them, and without their trust in PerfectServe’s platform and people, we would not be where we are today. I also think about the thousands of people we have helped along the way. These are customers, their patients, and the great people in this company. The relationships I’ve made with some of these people over the years are my most cherished. 

I love when I ask customers what value PerfectServe brings to them because I never get the same answer—in a good way. PerfectServe brings value to these people in so many ways. It’s a testament to what we’ve built over all these years. I really believe we are helping health systems address the widest variety of communication challenges. We’ve had to adapt several times over the years to stay relevant, but that’s good. We had to change our focus on providing after-hours answering services to expand to hospitals and health systems. Expanding our focus expands the number of providers, families, and patients we help.

What hopes do you have for PerfectServe’s next 25 years in this industry?

PerfectServe, and the industry in general, have come so far over the past 25 years. The industry used to rely on paper charts, faxing, printed call schedules, Rolodexes, and pagers. Now, everything is electronic. It can be hard to wrap my head around where clinical communications will be in 25 more years, not to mention where technology will be in 25 years. I imagine a lot more care will be in the home, and I suspect we will have a lot more to do with data. I think we will use data to make better predictions and to give more proactive care. I know machines and devices will become more competent, and companies like ours will continue intelligently routing alerts as technology advances. I also imagine care teams will become more complex over time with more people, so having a communication platform to manage all of that will only become more necessary. I am personally very excited to see where the industry will go and to see how PerfectServe will grow. Though I know one thing will never change: our commitment to purpose and people.

Speaking on behalf of Jeff and everybody else at PerfectServe, we’re honored to reach the 25-year mark, and we’re thrilled that close to 700,000 doctors, nurses, and other care team members use our products every day. We’ve worked for a quarter century to build solutions that accelerate speed to care, and we thank Jeff for lending us his passion and expertise for close to 20 years. Browse our website to learn more about PerfectServe’s solutions, and make sure to read our recent press release to see where we stand at 25.