Telus beats out Mitel for strategic healthcare contract

Telus Corp.'s new contract with CritiCall Ontario, the province's 24-hour-a-day emergency referral service for hospital-based physicians, is a big win for the western-based telco, which is targeting the healthcare vertical as a key growth sector. It follows Telus' acquisition in January of Emergis Inc., an IT company focusing on the health and financial services sectors.The five-year $2.3-million contract is the first Canadian implementation of Telus's iScheduler application for referral and waitlist, which integrates with Telus's CallCentreAnywhere application. The underlying software for iScheduler is from Eceptionist Inc. from Houston TX, and has been approved for use by Canada Health Infoway, the government-funded, non-profit organization mandated to accelerate that adoption of electronic health records across Canada.The solution provides CritiCall agents with patient referral capabilities, wherein information can follow patients to wherever they receive medical attention, and also provides CritiCall with reporting capabilities for improved planning.Video capabilities are another key component of the application. "Think of how we do video conferencing in healthcare today," says Barry Rivelis, VP of healthcare at Telus. "We can schedule a video conference consult between a patient and physician, but in Canada the real push is the concept of multi-disciplinary teams. If there is a specialist in one facility, another in somewhere else, we can use Outlook to trigger a meeting, book a room, and kick out an order for video conferencing scheduling."The advantage of Telus's video system, according to Rivelis, is that it breaks down on the desktop and allows for teams to be scheduled for video conferencing on a case-by-case basis. "For example a cancer patient may need a haematologist, and oncologist, and a radiologist all in on the same video consult," he adds.Steve Yang, an analyst for communication research at International Data Corp. in Toronto, sees the real gold in this deal as being the leverage it gives Telus in terms of future opportunities."A five-year contract worth $2.3 million is an average investment in the healthcare industry," says Yang. "But from here Telus will definitely be trying to drive other business. The application is web-based, and doctors and nurses will be using schedules in mobile environments - this is one way to move into the wireless area."Kris Bailey, executive director of CritiCall, says Telus was chosen from a list of six companies that responded to a request for proposals. The group had been using equipment from Mitel Corp. and Rincon Technologies, but it was time to upgrade the dated gear."We wanted to update significantly to include business intelligence roles," Bailey says of new system requirements.Improving flow of patient informationOne of the hidden - and therefore overlooked - aspects of scheduling software and video is that it has to take into account payment mechanisms that are specific to a given jurisdiction. At present, both Ontario and Alberta have systems to allow for it. Billing also has to follow the patient as he or she travels through the system."By creating a patient e-ticket it's like Fed Ex - we can look at the same patient as they move through the system, and use smart tools for physician notification supported by documentation," says Bailey.CritiCall's call centre application itself is fairly standard, but the difference is that, unlike in the case of a typical one-off 911 call, the application may have to track multiple interactions over several hours. The iScheduler suite assists with this by adding modules such as Telehealth Scheduling, Enterprise Scheduling, Referral Management, and Waitlist Management. There is even a module named Organ Case Manager for tracking organ donation."We have to track down the physician - and there may be multiple - then there has to be a decision to accept, then referrals, and hospitals chosen based on resources and location," says Bailey. "There are many interactions that go on within and between calls; on average, it takes ten calls to get a patient to their final destination."CritiCall has a triple redundant VoIP system that can work off of any PC; essentially, as long as there is power and the Internet, staff can get access to the system. Call logs ensure that, should a patient die during transfer, the coroner has complete access to the records.CritiCall, which does not have an IT department per se, is doing a five-year, staged implementation with Telus, with this first year being largely focussed on CallCentreAnywhere, with a cut over from the current to the new system scheduled for early September. iScheduler business rules will then be configured, with CritiCall starting with paediatrics for referrals, then neurosurgery (province-wide), with the system continuing to build out discipline-by-discipline."We are looking at a 100% improvement," says Bailey. "We are now at 60 minutes for patient referrals - we plan to get that down to 30 minutes."

Telus beats out Mitel for strategic healthcare contract

News | 07/21/2008 7:48 pm EDT

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