The Urology Center of Iowa is a single-specialty practice dedicated to urology healthcare with advanced technology for diagnosis and treatment of urologic disorders, including prostate matters, incontinence problems, and various cancers. Testing, diagnosis, and customer contact are all handed in-house, ensuring discretion and a high level of customer care.

The Challenge: The need for a strong, secure system

Healthcare can be an emotional matter for many, and the Urology Center of Iowa deals with a number of intensely personal issues. That’s why it is vital for the practice to ensure trusted customer engagement and a seamless, sympathetic communication process.

“With healthcare, people can be very anxious around discussing results or treatments, and it’s our role to provide comfort and support where possible while finding the right person for the patient to speak with,” says Lais Heideman, Clinical Manager at Urology Center of Iowa.

The Urology Center of Iowa needed a communications system that allowed its patient access representatives to efficiently handle a number of scenarios. The center’s customer service team regularly deals with callers who need help with things like prescription refills, hospital matters, billing, requests for appointments, result checks, and many other concerns. In addition, the team needed a system for after hours voicemails that could be passed along to the correct people.

After looking at a few different options, including on-premises systems like Cisco, the center chose the 8x8 Experience Communications Platform because of its advanced features, privacy and security offerings, and ease of use, as well as positive reviews from nearby sister centers that recommended 8x8.

The Solution: Key insights and seamless integration

The team at the Urology Center of Iowa is small, but mighty, with a dedicated staff of around half a dozen people. With 8x8 Contact Center, the team was able to set up a phone system, so that patients can easily call and quickly get the help they need, whether they’re looking to make an appointment, pay their bill, ask a question, etc. They also set up a voicemail system for after hours, allowing patients to call at any time and leave a voicemail with their nurse or other healthcare professional.

With 8x8, the organization can manage staffing levels throughout the day to ensure that calls are answered promptly, but also that there’s no budgetary waste. When getting set up with 8x8, the team purchased additional licenses for its contact center, so that others can jump in as needed, according to demand.

Stats and analytics on staffing, as well as other key insights, are available right from the dashboard. The center can immediately see detailed, minute-by-minute information on what’s happening. “We have the dashboard set up in our call center, so it’s very easy for agents to take a quick peek at the screen and see everything they need to know at a glance,” says Heideman.

The Result: Happy patients, happy staff

WIth 8x8, the Urology Center of Iowa stays organized and efficient. “I find it all very easy to navigate,” says Heideman.

Listening back to previous calls is easy with 8x8 Contact Center, and it has been an invaluable feature for the team. Not only is it helpful for training and quality assurance purposes, but it’s there if there’s ever a misunderstanding or a patient issue. Heideman described a situation where a patient was certain that they had a procedure booked for a specific date and time that didn’t correlate with what their own records indicated. The patient was adamant, so the staff member logged into the 8x8 dashboard to find the truth.

“I was able to go back, listen to what had actually been said, and then calm the patient down, completely de-escalating the situation,” says Leideman. “In that situation, the patient representative had actually done everything correctly, and thanks to 8x8’s tools, we were able to establish that and learn from the event. 8x8 allows us to remove any ambiguity from a situation and provide clarity, which is vital in what we do.

”Overall, the staff at the Urology Center of Iowa speaks very highly of its experience with 8x8. “I would recommend 8x8 because it’s so user friendly—not only for the agent, but also from a supervisory perspective. It makes our jobs easier,” says Heideman.

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