There’s no question the COVID-19 crisis is deeply impacting our nation’s hospitals and health systems – and the reverberations will likely be felt for years to come. Aside from caring for critically ill patients, health systems need to rapidly increase capacity for coronavirus patients.
On March 18, CMS, the Surgeon General, and the American College of Surgeons urged hospitals to postpone non-urgent elective procedures. Some states have gone even further and placed moratoriums on elective surgeries.
Patient access centers, the front line for patient communication, will bear the brunt of these decisions as they not only cope with the appointment cancelations, but a wide range of other patient needs that may be increasing due to the current crisis, including scheduling, nurse triage, medication refills, and clinical prep instructions.
To free up associates to address more urgent calls, patient access centers can use some common tools that many access centers already have to communicate cancellation information.
By using tools and processes already in place, patient access centers can avoid spending additional budget on outreach while staying nimble. The ultimate result is that associates can then use their time to respond to the most urgent needs of their patients.
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