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(Nick Evans, pictured above, thought he had seen it all after working with contact centres in the banking, insurance, manufacturing, dairy, and aviation industries for more than 30 years. However, nothing prepared him for what a hospital contact centre agent does on a typical day.)
An organisation’s contact centre serves as the communication hub for the entire enterprise. The operators perform a number of important and diverse tasks including, answering the main switchboard, communicating with patients and their family members, handling emergencies and disaster response, contacting on-call medical staff, and much more. Hospital operators act as the “information hub” to provide critical connections between people, processes, and technology.
Operators Are Frontline Workers
After working in the customer contact centre environment for 30 years, I assumed that hospital operator tasks couldn’t be that different – how wrong I was. All contact centre agents manage complex work environments, but unlike hospital operators, few have people’s lives in their hands. I was kindly granted access to agents around the country, and it is clear to me that hospital operators are unsung heroes. In my mind, they should be considered frontline staff and be afforded the best tools as they work with others in the hospital to save lives.
Unlike other personnel within a healthcare system, the people working in a hospital’s call centre must understand the services offered by every department to properly assist callers. The attitude of many hospital staff is “Ring the operators – they will know.” Hospital operators answer hundreds or thousands of calls daily, and some enquiries are new requests not heard of before. Handling these calls results in a considerable storehouse of knowledge and information that is constantly updated, managed, and added to the operator’s kitbag to be drawn on by hospital staff and the public every minute of the day.
What Is a 777 (Code Call) Event?
While the primary role of the hospital operator is the smooth handling of public and patient enquiries, their critical role is handling internal 777 code calls and processes. Medical staff are instructed to call 777 for any sudden onset of emergencies that require the provision of acute clinical response or threaten the safety of people, buildings, and facilities.
Typically, the operator is given a code, building location, and patient location information. It is the operator’s job to calmly coordinate the escalation of care in an instant to not only ensure the incident is managed to the highest standards of the organisation, but to also assist in life-saving communication protocols that coordinate people, resources, and technology to optimise response time.
When anxiety is high and lives are at stake, the operator needs to make quick decisions and communicate critical information as clearly and succinctly as possible. These are the types of events that can be managed in the course of a normal day:
What Technology Is Used During a 777 Call?
Within Te Whatu Ora, very few processes are integrated or automated. Much of the needed information and procedures are stored and accessed manually. So, there is a reliance on the calmness, skill, and expertise of the operator for successful call completion. During a 777 call, operators will instigate and coordinate a response of multiples of the following:
Operators need immediate access to the correctly skilled people who are available via their preferred contact methods. Multiple databases provide the skills matrix, availability, and contact information, and then contacts need to be made through primary and secondary communication methods. Operators connect to staff via:
Agents also monitor alarms for building systems (fire, fridge, air conditioning, etc.) and various medical equipment. Often, this equipment is mounted on the wall with no integration to the operator console, and each features its own interface display and notification method. SMS, paging, radio telephones, and overheads are typically in their own separate area away from the operator workstation.
Reduce Errors and Improve Workflows with Updated Technology
A calm demeanour conceals the life-saving tasks operators perform with aging equipment distributed around the contact centre. Operators must make do with what they have. Experienced operators can overcome technology deficiencies with manual processes; however, overreliance on manual procedures introduces possibilities for critical human errors and can overwhelm a newcomer.
Integrating time-saving automation and scripting tools into a hospital call centre’s console are especially helpful in emergency or code call situations when anxiety is high and lives are at stake. Training new hires is also easier because scripting tools program decision-making prompts for the new operator to follow. Almost everything they need to navigate any type of call is already on the screen.
Thank you to all the Operators and Administrators who have provided me with the opportunity to observe the essential role you provide.
Nick Evans
Amtelco Regional Sales Manager for Australia and New Zealand
