Success Story: COVID-19 Vaccination Distribution

The Problems

In 2021 the United States federal government began shipping COVID-19 vaccines nationwide. As the demand increased physician offices, health systems, counties and municipalities were all overwhelmed with inquiries regarding vaccination appointments, disrupting day-to-day operations and increasing staff workloads.

Streamlined digital tools are key to a successful and effective COVID-19 vaccination program. At a time when people are still concerned about social distancing, providers need tools to help them manage incoming inquiries while keeping themselves and their patients safe.

The Solution:

SpinSci Technologies introduced a self-service Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and ChatBot solution. The solution was quickly implemented in a large Northwestern United States health system based upon their immediate need. This immediately added value for both patients and provider contact centers. The Health System’s Chief Technical Officer recognized the problem early and relied on SpinSci to support the solution:

“in 12 days, an incredible cross-functional team deployed a modern interactive IVR providing our patients with a personalized experience to determine vaccine eligibility and sign up for real time SMS communications regarding appointments and clinic openings in multiple languages. We securely collected their information in support of a frictionless appointment and watched as our patients embraced Self-Service.

When we can both scale and improve the patient experience, it creates a win/win for all parties. Thanks to our business partner, SpinSci, for your heroic response to this new demand.”

Key Highlights

• Patient:
  • Patients don’t have to wait in long queues to speak with an agent regarding scheduling/canceling vaccination appointments or to check eligibility or get added to waitlists based on vaccine availability
  • Patients are able to experience an intuitive Self-Service IVR to:
    • Schedule their COVID-19 vaccinations
    • Cancel/Reschedule their COVID-19 vaccinations
    • Check eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations
    • Get added to the wait list

• Contact Center Operations:
  • Agents are no longer overwhelmed with calls regarding COVID Vaccinations
  • When any calls are actually transferred from the Self-Service IVR to the contact center, agents are able to immediately see patient details on their screen through revolutionary Electronic Health Record integration, increasing their efficiency and driving speed to care
  • Operations team are able to manage any waitlists through an innovative and intuitive provider portal
  • Operations are able to filter and sort records and send SMS or voice notifications updating any wait lists and notifying individuals regarding appointments and schedules

SpinSci was able to implement the solution with:

• Seamless integration
  • The solution integrated with the Epic EHR helping patients Self-Service (schedule or cancel appointment) allowing patients to complete their actions without having to connect with a live contact center agent
• Deployment:
  • Rapid deployment model designed to deliver the solution with pace and precision
  • Chatbots that work on any browser and can be integrated with any website
  • IVR built in the cloud and thus are easily scalable and deployable
  • Ability to escalate to a live contact center agent as appropriate
  • If patients are stuck at any point in the self-service workflows, they are to escalate the chat to an agent
  • Agent receives the entire transcript of the self-service chat

Challenges

• Client teams need to setup Epic services on their end which can be delayed due to technical debt or knowledge gaps
• Due to the nature of the problem where speed to market was a priority, Quality Assurance was fluid and performed during the implementation process
• Eligibility criteria was dynamic, changing on a weekly basis so design had to be flexible so eligibility criteria could rapidly be adjusted and published to production

Success

1. Over 100,000 patients were added to waitlist and contacted via the portal for vaccination scheduling
2. Patients were successfully able to schedule appointments from the Self-Service IVR which reduced the queue times for the contact centers
3. Operations team had complete control of the waitlist which provided real-time insights into eligible patients and preferred channel mode for communication

About the Epic App Orchard

• The App Orchard is Epic’s marketplace where developers can learn about Epic’s APIs and list their apps for Epic community members to explore and access.
• With more than 500 participating organizations and its own full-time technical services (TS) team at Epic, App Orchard has grown into a mature ecosystem.
• App Orchard gives its partners access to a multitude of APIs that can be used for various patient access workflows