Protecting On-Call Staff
“I was the only person on-call last night, with no backup. I can’t be the only one on-call when I’ve already put in a ten-hour day! I was called throughout the night and half of the calls weren’t urgent.
“I only got three hours of sleep. I can’t go on like this. It’s killing me, I hate my job, and it isn’t good any for patients. Consider this my two-week’s notice.”
Gwynn Halsey looked across her desk at Lisa, a bright, hard-working RN with a genuine commitment to patients. “I understand,” said Gwynn. “I’m sorry to see you go.”
Lisa left, closing the door behind her. That wasn’t the only door Gwynn felt close.
The hospital was already closing beds in units due to a lack of nurses. She wasn’t likely to get any help if she complained to the director. She certainly wasn’t going to get any nurses from another department. She had to do something, and it had to be affordable.
She called her administrative assistant, Nancy, to say they lost another nurse.
“I’ve been working on something,” Nancy beamed. “I’ve gotten so many complaints from our on-call staff about being called when they shouldn’t be. We can actually outsource afterhours calls to an answering service that specializes in healthcare.
“They’ll screen calls according to our protocols and only contact our on-calls for the right reasons. We can stop relying on the hospital’s ineffective switchboard. Plus, we can manage our on-call schedules online. And–”
“Nancy, slow down,” Gwynn interrupted. “This sounds expensive. And it’s money we don’t have.”
“Actually,” Nancy replied, “we are already paying the hospital for two FTEs to cover our share of the afterhours calls. We can switch to the answering service for much less.”
“You’re sure?” Gwynn asked.
“I’ve got the contract on my desk. I’ve been reluctant to bring it up, but this seems like the right time.”
“Do you know anything about this place? Are you sure they can live up to their promises?” Gwynn asked.
“Well, we know the hospital switchboard isn’t working. That’s for sure. I got the idea from Cathy at Hospice.
“She recommended them. They’ve been using this answering service for about a year. She said nobody wanted to change, but it has worked really great. They couldn’t be happier.”
“Let’s take a look at that contract,” Gwynn said. “We can’t lose anyone else over this.”
Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s book Call Center Connections.
With three decades of industry experience, Peter is the publisher and editor-in-chief of TAS Trader, covering the telephone answering service industry.