Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky has created a new, in-house call center to ensure patients are scheduled efficiently at their local health center, and that all patient questions are answered knowledgeably by Planned Parenthood employees.
Scheduling an appointment is often the first step of the Planned Parenthood patient experience. Now, PPINK patients can count on our best foot forward when they take this step and call.
The call center, located in Indianapolis, will eliminate the problems patients sometimes had in scheduling appointments with telephone representatives unfamiliar with their neighborhoods.
"There have been frustrations with external call centers, because [representatives there] did not have geographical knowledge of the patient's area. So, for example, patients might be scheduled at health centers further than they needed to go, or a patient would have to wait longer for a procedure because the telephone representative wasn't aware the next clinic over was only 20 minutes away and didn't offer that appointment to the patient," explained Area Services Director Laura Miller.
"People who are employed locally are familiar with the area and understand drive times."
"Because they are employed directly by Planned Parenthood, the telephone representatives at our call center are able to answer a lot more questions that our patients have," Miller added.
Because the call center can add a more knowledgeable and more personalized experience for patients, providers at health centers are able to focus on their relationship with the patient and the patient's individual needs.
"We're better able to maximize the time we have with the patient, and really focus on that relationship, because they're getting much more nuanced information and assistance when they call to schedule their appointment," said Miller.
She commented that there was a lot of cross-departmental collaboration to get the call center up and running quickly: "This call center is a great example of the entire organization working together as a team, from facilities creating space for the call center physically, from clinical, operations and finance working quickly to integrate it in all of our processes, to information services making it technologically possible."
"Everyone knew this would make the experience for our patients better, so we just did it."
So far, Miller reports that patients have responded very positively to the change.
You can support Planned Parenthood’s efforts to improve the experiences of our patients, and our ability to meet their needs rapidly, by donating here.
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