Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC)

The Challenge

Find a scalable (and cost-effective) call center provider with healthcare experience and certifications (Security and HIPPA), to supplement the FQHC's existing call center which was just learning to how to migrate to work-from-home. The goal was to improve call center wait times and the overall patient experience during a very stressful time for almost everyone (COVID-19, and all of the unknown around COVID-19). After-all FQHC's are healthcare providers, and during this time (more than ever), patients needed to speak with someone quickly (and not wait for 30-50 minutes).

The Solution

Contract with an experienced call center outsourcing provider (Emerging Global Services, a leading healthcare industry call center), located in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico (Nearshore), where high quality, bi-lingual English AND Spanish speaking labor is widely available at significantly less cost than in the U.S.A. The labor is exceptional when compared to call-center employees in the U.S. For example, almost all EGS employees have two or four-year college degrees which is not common in the U.S. market. In addition, most employees have either lived in, or regularly visit, the U.S. Finally, EGS employees are highly trained on a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule, creating a very efficient and effective labor force that is readily available.

NOTE: It should also be noted that during this time of this COVID-19 lockdown in the U.S., the pandemic had not yet hit the Hermosillo, Sonora market in any sizable outbreak. Yes, eventually the virus did take root in Sonora, Mexico, however its effects were not at all on the same scale as happened in the USA.

In addition to quality labor, EGS manages an operationally-excellent call center which is laserfocused on the call center critical success factors important to the FQHC market. These include creating and managing to efficient work-flows around appointment scheduling, effectiveness in leveraging the various ERM's used by FQHC's (these include EPIC, eClinicalWorks, Athenahealth, and many others)

Lastly, the EGS technology platform enables call center representatives to more effectively serve their clients patients in a seamless manner, across any communication channel they prefer, including voice, SMS/Text, Chat, Web, Social, Email, Video or Self-Service.

The Results for the FQHC:

• Reduced patient wait times within their call center by 45 minutes (90%).
• Reduced call center employee turnover (attrition) by 60%.
• Reduced overall call center costs by 45% (fully loaded costs, including taxes and overhead) by leveraging Mexico agents.
• Improved call center abandonment rates by 90% due to low call center hold times.
• Overall Patient Satisfaction improved 40% when measured over a 9 month period after launching the EGS call center.

More about EGS

Emerging Global Services (EGS), based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA is a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider delivering innovative technology and labor services from emerging markets nearshore in Sonora, Mexico. The EGS solution delivers cost savings by leveraging our high quality, lower cost of labor and technology solutions, for any Healthcare and FQHC provider, serving doctors, nurses and patients across the healthcare continuum. FQHC healthcare clinics need to deliver a robust patient experience, especially via the phone as a large percent of their patients several the phone as a first touch point when contacting their FQHC provider. a multi-channel customer communications strategy when it comes to support.