OBGYN Medical Center Associates provide care across eight offices in and around the Houston area, including Clear Lake, Kingwood, the Heights, Willowbrook and Sugarland, with an office in the Texas Medical Center operating as their home base. The practice, founded in 1965, is made up of 15-20 physicians and a team of roughly 75 employees working in different departments, including doctors, nurses, front desk, call center, and the billing department. Their nurses and call center staff began working remotely when possible during the pandemic, so it was critical that they have a system that could support a secure and seamless patient experience, from anywhere.
With the busiest doctors averaging about 3,000 calls per month, and an average call volume of roughly 800-1000 calls per day, efficient call-handling is critical, especially when the call is concerning an important medical query or request.
Challenge: A glitchy, unreliable system
With its massive call volume, OBGYN Medical Center Associates needed a powerful system that could not only handle incoming calls efficiently, but could help staff provide excellent, personalized care to their patients, and direct calls safely and securely, according to caller needs.
The center’s previous cloud communications provider wasn’t up to par. Staff reported having issues with the call quality, including static and patchy connections, and even occasional dropped calls. Due to the center’s commitment to its patients and standards of excellence, the organization quickly began the hunt for a new provider that would offer a reliable long-term solution.
The center’s parent company, Privia Health, recommended that the team look into 8x8. “They’re the ones who brought 8x8 down to us,” says Leticia Martinez, Director of Operations at OBGYN Medical Center Associates. “We got to know the company and they walked us through the product. The physicians and the administration really liked it, so we chose 8x8.” When asked why, Martinez says that the decision came down to 8x8’s detailed reporting and analytics, as well as a few key product features.
Solution: High call volume? No problem.
While migrating to 8x8 Work, Martinez and her team were able to get up to speed on the platform quickly and efficiently. “The training materials are great. Whenever I see any 8x8 University webinars coming up, if my time allows it, I log on. And if I can’t make it, they’re all recorded, so I can go back and view them on my own time, which is also really nice,” says Martinez. “And if I ever have any questions, our rep is just one phone call away.”
With such a high call volume, it was essential that calls can be seamlessly routed and documented. The center uses both 8x8’s Ring Group and Auto Attendant functions to ensure a high-quality patient experience with minimal wait time. When a call comes in for an organization using a ring group, every extension in the group rings, and the first person to pick up answers the call. This enables the team to handle a higher call volume and work more efficiently together to handle the demand.
Additionally, 8x8 Work has made a big difference for the center. The mobile app allows employees to answer calls and work with patients in the office, at home, or on the go. “Our nurses do use the 8x8 app right from their phones, which was huge during COVID, allowing some of the staff to work from home,” says Martinez. This made a huge improvement to the safety and the work/life balance of the staff, allowing some hybrid work options and minimizing the need for in-office work during the pandemic lockdowns.
Benefits: Agility and up-to-the-minute reporting
For OBGYN Medical Center Associates, the best parts of switching to 8x8 are the flexibility and the reporting. “I love 8x8’s flexibility. Every department has its own needs for certain phone features, and with 8x8, we can just customize the system to whatever they might need,” says Martinez. “And it’s very user-friendly.”
In addition, having immediate access to call and operational data has been huge for Martinez and her team. “The reporting's great because it tells you how many calls were abandoned, how many were missed, and what the timeframe was,” says Martinez. 8x8’s productivity reporting is also critically important when it comes to managing staff schedules, so that the center has the manpower to handle the incoming calls on any given day. “The fact that I can get reports down to the minute is huge,” she continues. “And having the calls recorded is great, especially if we ever have an issue with a patient, or we ever need to refer back to a conversation.”
