How to gain visibility into and control over telecom spends

By carefully managing and leveraging their communications systems, healthcare organizations can conserve financial resources and enhance overall patient care.

In today's healthcare environment, medical professionals are under increasing pressure to provide the highest possible quality of patient care at the lowest possible cost.  Within the complex interaction of patient needs, scientific advances, government regulations, advancing technologies, and risk management, healthcare organizations have discovered that advanced communication management solutions can help them meet a variety of common challenges:

• Unrelenting pressure to reduce expenses while maintaining quality of care
• Increased use of cellular technology for both internal and external communications
• The need to improve network security and respond quickly to emergency or threatening calls
• The need to bill back telephone charges to research grants
• Insufficient network capacity to handle spikes in   call traffic
• The need to track telephone usage at nurses' stations and other areas of shared access
• Increasing abuse of telephone privileges in hospital  settings
  
  

Healthcare Solutions

Veramark's VeraSMART® Communications Management Suite and eCAS® Call Accounting software offer solutions to these issues confronting healthcare providers.

The VeraSMART platform, designed with the needs of the healthcare enterprise in mind, delivers the functionality to manage complex communications networks with converging IP and TDM premises-based technologies, wireless devices, and mobile/remote staff such as on-call physicians and affiliated specialists.  VeraSMART effectively manages resources, boosts organizational efficiency, improves cost management and productivity, and automates work flow process management.

eCAS can help to significantly reduce telecommunication expenses.  This Web browser-based call accounting software is designed for small- to mid-size healthcare organizations with VoIP or TDM switches.  The system consolidates key voice and data network management functionality in a single application that addresses cost allocation, call traffic analysis, personnel productivity, client and project code chargeback and toll-fraud.

Meeting Healthcare Challenges

Cost Reduction                                                     
Since telephone charges are commonly the third largest business expense after payroll and rent, it makes sense to use a call accounting system to provide visibility into and control over these costs.  Many managers understand that a call accounting system helps track usage and verify telephone bills, but do not always realize that the wide variety of reports available – calls by time of day, extension, employee, duration, cost, etc. – can help them identify opportunities for significant cost savings.  For hospitals and other facilities open 24 hours a day with extensive common areas, these reports can be invaluable.

Maximizing Network Capacity                                
There's no underestimating the critical role that the communications system plays in enhancing patient care—from the first appointment call, to communication with family and staff during their stay, to the follow-up calls for test results and billing inquiries.  So it is imperative for the facility to have sufficient trunk capacity to handle peaks in communications traffic.

With concise and easy-to-understand reports from VeraSMART or eCAS, medical facilities can determine their peak traffic periods.  These reports highlight the busiest phone usage hours, calls answered and unanswered, and actual trunk utilization, enabling administrators to optimize the telephone network to its full advantage.  This information is essential to ensuring that the medical staff always has access to outbound lines, and that incoming patient calls always reach their destinations without delay.

Improving Security                                                  
The VeraSMART and eCAS call accounting systems can be configured to alert the hospital systems administrator when certain criteria do not follow what has been defined as normal calling activity.  These alerts can be sent by email, or a report can be printed immediately upon completion of any call that seems suspicious.  Having access to this information gives administrators the opportunity to react quickly to potential security issues.

Billback of Telephone Charges                               
Calls can be allocated to research grants through the account code feature of your telephone switch and the account code reports in the call accounting software.  One-time, recurring, and prorated charges can also be allocated back to appropriate groups such as doctors, departments or cost centers, or specific distribution lists.

Managing Wireless Communications                            
In today's busy hospital environment, physicians need to be reached in different ways at different times: via cell phone, home phones and pagers of different types.  Medical personnel are using wireless communication technology to maximize productivity and share information on the go.

VeraSMART helps hospital administrators control wireless communications expenses. Instead of trying to manage cell phone minutes on a spreadsheet, administrators rely on VeraSMART to maintain an accurate physical inventory, optimize monthly cell usage, and manage call spikes.

Tracking Shared Line Usage                                
Both VeraSMART and eCAS can track authorization codes. Calls made using these codes can be easily assigned to the calling party, giving administrators more control over shared line usage.

Controlling Abuse of Telephone Privileges                  
With many medical facilities open around the clock and more phones located in common access areas, there is increasing potential for abuse of telephone privileges.  Both VeraSMART and eCAS allow administrators to take corrective actions before a small problem gets out of hand.  Toll fraud alarms and call reports by individual make it easy to detect abuse of phone privileges.

VeraSMART and eCAS Call Accounting software enable hospitals and medical facilities to gain visibility into, and control over, their communications networks. By carefully managing and leveraging their communications systems, healthcare organizations can conserve their financial resources and enhance overall patient care.