Healthcare Industry Blog By Mark Wechsler

Listening for Opportunity

May 5, 2011

I was meeting with a large healthcare provider the other day and listening to them vent. The crux of their frustration was that they couldn’t keep up with the barrage of incoming calls. Patient, physician, nursing, and administration calls were overwhelming. The customer was certain that a number of satisfaction issues (patient and staff) were due to poorly handled calls. In the healthcare provider’s eyes, the communication system wasn’t accommodating their business process needs.

Within every problem there is an opportunity. Everyone at the table saw it.  In the customer’s own words, the Avaya communication system is the “Cadillac” of the industry. It simply wasn’t set up to meet their current needs. That’s when we were able to guide the discussion towards the real issue — the business unit (e.g., Radiology, Pediatrics, Ob/Gyn) needs had evolved over time. They had not communicated this to the IT/Telecom group, and the IT folks had not expended effort in the recent past to realize that business unit requirements had changed. It all boiled down to a failure to communicate!

This is where Cross Telecom’s deep understanding of the technology and the healthcare industry is a unique advantage. It was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate our strong understanding of the customer’s business needs and our ability to translate them into technical requirements for the IT group. The result is simply the blending of each business unit’s requirements (e.g., matching inbound call requests with the right skill, resource, and role) with IT’s ability to configure and manage the infrastructure  (e.g., assuring  call path configurations, reporting, and management.) Because we demonstrated a balanced approach including the right blend of industry, business, and technical expertise, it was never a question of how much will our consulting services cost. Rather, it was a question of how fast could we engage!

Healthcare is by no means a static business. Government reform coupled with advances in care is a significant source of change and causing the business to consistently evolve. Cross Professional Services helps our  customers take best advantage of their communication system investment to support their business, clinical, and operational needs.

Mark Wechsler — Cross Healthcare Industry Director

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