A Tale of Two Tech Solutions

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hi, my name is Greg Turner, and I’m a humanI want to tell you two stories today, one of failureAnd one of success.The first begins wilth*click*
• #3: A big bag of money*click*
• #4: Let’s say a department found it under a deskThis isn’t literal, but that’s what it seems like when anyone discovers unexpected money in their budgetAnd they have to use it, or else they lose it, right?So they began casting around for ways to use it.They didn’t have capacity, so they couldn’t hire humansBut they could justify trying to get more patients*click*
• #5: So they went to marketing*click*
• #6: Now, this was in 2009 or so and someone had heard about this thing called GoogleAnd this other thing called ad wordsAnd because it had something to do with the Internet, they also talked *click*
• #7: To meIn addition to building out the landing pages people would be directed to and on-site workflow,I also interfaced with the Google team and did things like advise about words and phrases that made sense*click*
• #8: And ones that didn’t*click*
• #9: Hold for laugh?So we launched the campaign, and we waitedAt first nothing happened, but then we noticed a marked increase in visitors, And more importantly, a huge increase (percentage-wise) in people filling out the contact form*click*
• #10: Mind you, we’re talking 12 as opposed to 4, but it was still encouraging.And here’s the thing: we figured out the costs and value of each person who could potentially become a patient, And if we got just one person, the campaign would have paid for itself.So of course we compared people who had filled out the form to people who had become patients*click*
• #11: And that’s when things got weird.Of the people who had filled out the form, not one of them became a patient. Not a single oneSo we started poking around, looking at the processes*click*
• #12: These days, business transactions often start with a human and end with a piece of technologyDuring the process, there might be multiple humans and multiple pieces of technologyBut usually the penultimate step contains a human*click*
• #13: And the ultimate step is either a bank or an apology note.Two rather interesting technologies (if you’ll give me a little lee-way on the definition)*click*
• #14: So what did we discover?Well, we first scoured the web-site processes and workflows, and we made sure the form was correct, could be accessed from inside or outside the systemWe made sure the email was firing off correctly, and everything worked*click*The problem wasn’t with the technology, It was with the humans*click*
• #15: Notably, the lack of themNo one had thought through the human process on the other side of the technology, and we discoveredThat people hadn’t been properly empowered to check emails or triage requests.So it was taking too long to contact potential patientsSome then resorted to the phone, but others never became patients at allWe had a failure point in the human part of our business process.We corrected it, or did our best to, but I think by then it was just too late*click*
• #16: This is in distinct contrast to our UFandShands.org online appointment requests*click*
• #17: Where we have both technology*click*
• #18: And humans*click*
• #19: And a highly refined process that evolved organically from a small call center over-seen by the marketing departmentDescribe the full process here (and how people marvel at it and wonder how we’re able to do it all given the numbers we get, (which we’ll get to in a minute.)*click*
• #20: This process had been developed back with the old Shands.org, an ancient piece of technology*click*
• #21: With the link to the contact form buriedwayyyy down here at the bottom*click*
• #22: Back then things were very manageableWe only had 10 to 12 requests a day, give or takeThe important thing, though, is that the process was solid*click*
• #23: So when we launched the new UFandShands.org, and put the appointment request button right up front on the home page*click*
• #24: And had a massive uptick in appointment requests, we were able to handle them just fine.Not because the technology changed, but because we had solid human processes in place, unloaded some of the phone traffic to hospital operators and a patient access center, etc. etc. etc.But this growth has continued, and now we’re tracking at close to 300 requests a week. And it’s now getting to the point where we need to develop new technology solutions So the humans can continue their part of the process*click*
• #25: So things are going to changeFrom this*click*
• #26: To thisWe’re building out a tech solution that will enable the call center to more rapidly triage incoming requestsBut we’re also working on back-end operations to make sure we have all the pieces in place so no one falls through the cracksIt’s messy, but totally worth it.*click*
• #27: As a technologist*click*
• #28: I don’t like humansThey’re messy, moody and completely unpredictable*click*
• #29: As a human*click*
• #30: They’re messy, moody and completely unpredictableSo we need to pay particular attention to their (our) role in operations*click*
• #31: Because we really need both humans*click*
• #32: And technology*click*
• #33: All in good working orderThanks a bunch, people