Considering creating unique Call center- health care related

[aksnks]

I am tasked by the boss to look into creating a call center for a
group practice of physicians

the initial goal is to help with real-time medical advice
our doctors answer call from clients around the world in real time often calling from satellite phones.
They currently answer a landline in the clinic
as business has grown, we consider a center to manage the calls and direct to a on call doctor.

Challenges are patching calls to Doctor within 1 minute. Cell phones are unreliable.

Currently seeeking other related business to help support this function, like customer service surveys, research surveys that could be conducted from the center.

ANy thoughts, advice direction would help
thanks

[mikael]

Setting up a contact center such as you've described is not too difficult to do. The "what" of it has been done many times before in terms of the technology (phone switch, call-tracker, knowledgebase, etc.), staffing (Org structure, recruitment, training, scheduling) and ongoing management (metrics, supervision, P&L, etc.) The hard part is the "Why?"

What's your company's strategy as regards your customers/patients? What's the profit-realization strategy? What will your customers be willing to pay for this service? What will it cost you to provide the services? With the service itself be expected to be a profit center, or is the profit to be made elsewhere?

Will all calls go to a doctor? Or could some of them be taken by a nurse-practitioner? If mixed, what are the criteria to be used for each? What are the differences in costs? Could the same phone team be profitably used for other functions? What privacy issues (HIPAA) are involved in capturing research or survey data?

That's just off the top of my head -- if you want to chat about it directly, give me a call or e-mail.