Case Study:

Speech Recognition at Lahey Clinic Medical Center

Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, MA, encompasses an ambulatory care center serving more than 3,000 patients each day and a 259-bed hospital. In addition, the Lahey Clinic Medical Center, Northshore in Peabody (located about 20 miles north of Boston) serves more than 400 outpatients each day.

Speech Recognition Improves Service To Patients And Staff

The Challenge

In recent years, the Lahey telecommunications department faced a persistent challenge: to reduce the number of calls made to operators by "internal" callers (physicians and hospital staff). "It was becoming a real service issue," explains Lisa Guarino, Telecommunications Manager at Lahey Clinic, "We needed our operators available to answer calls from patients and other callers outside the hospital. No matter how many options we offered—IVR systems, online directory information—employees kept calling the operators."

The Goal

To reduce the number of internal calls and paging requests being handled by operators, thus improving service to patients.

The Solution

Speech recognition technology from Amcom. Amcom's Smart Speech™ applications, which run from the same Oracle database as Amcom's operator services and web directory applications, enable callers to "ask" an automated line for a connection or page without ever speaking to an operator.

The Result

• The total number of calls to Lahey operators has been reduced by 20-percent because of calls handled automatically by the Smart Speech system
• 2,800 pages per month are handled without operator assistance
• Operators have more availability to answer patient and "high value" calls, while the Smart Speech line handles routine transfers and paging requests
• The Lahey telecommunications department has reduced operator overtime hours and the use of "per diem" staff
• Lahey employees have found Smart Speech line easy to use, and have adopted the new technology quickly

How it Works

Lahey Clinic uses Smart Speech for three distinct functions: As an automated "main number," as an operator assistance number for internal users, and as an automate receptionist answering calls to General Internal Medicine.

• When people dial the main listed number, the Smart Speech system asks them to say one of five options: appointment, billing, medical records, patient information, or name of a physician, department or staff member. The system listens, then completes the connection
• When staff and employees dial the internal speech line, the system asks whether the caller wants to "call" or "page" someone, then steps the caller through the process via prompts and the caller's spoken responses
• Smart Speech is also used to handle calls to Lahey's General Internal Medicine Department. Callers are asked to say one of four options—future appointment, prescription renewal, medical records, or billing—or they can say "operator" to reach the department receptionist

SMART SPEECH™ APPLICATIONS enable you to process a majority of routine requests—such as directory assistance, messaging, and paging—independently of a live operator or touchtone.

SMART WEB™ APPLICATIONS enable any authorized employee to look up directories, send pages, and view and schedule on-call assignment via the Internet.

SMART CENTER™ RELATIONAL DATABASE helps administrators maintain up to date information to keep your call center operating accurately and efficiently.

SMART CONSOLE™ ATTENDANT WORKSTATION integrates PBX, paging services, and patient information into one workstation.

DIRECTORY SERVICES are available enterprise-wide to help Smart Console attendants locate healthcare professionals quickly and accurately.

OPERATOR SAVER™ provides automated greetings and salutation in the attendant's voice.

VOICE-ASSISTED TRANSFER announces the number to which a caller is being transferred so they may dial directly in the future.

SMART PARK™ allows operators to type in a caller's name and other notes when parking a call, and enables any operator in the group to view the information to finish processing the call.

ON-CALL CALENDARS enable authorized employees to view and change on call assignments via phone, TCP/IP, and/or WEB.

INTELLIGENT PAGING operates transparently to attendants, delivering in-house and area-wide pages quickly and accurately.

MEET-ME-PAGING provides physician-to-physician paging without attendant intervention.

PHYSICIAN REFERRAL enables operators to manage physician referrals with the same system and database used for other call center activities.

ADMINISTRATIVE MONITORING AND REPORTING provides real-time monitoring of call center activity and reporting procedures, including call statistics and messaging activity.