More than 50 customer service specialists based in Melville have handled upwards of 230,000 calls and made more that 80,000 appointments for medical groups across the North Shore-LIJ Health system since opening earlier this year.
A significant number of the 52-person staff answering calls are bilingual and handle scheduling for a variety of medical group practices, including Urgent Care centers, Orthopedics, ENT, Neurology and Urology offices as well as emergency department discharge programs and CareConnect insurance.
“We are pleased to be able to give patients a central location to schedule appointments and ask questions about the many services offered by the health system,” said June Scarlett, vice president of Centralized Call Center. “Our dedicated staff takes pride in being able to serve patients quickly and efficiently with a single telephone call.”
The center averages 3,100 appointments per week, and has fielded better than 230,000 patient calls. Since opening, the volume of calls has grown over 400 percent. The staff handled more than 40,000 in October alone, abandoning only 3.8 percent, below the industry standard of 5 percent. In addition, the staff takes pride in having answered more than 70 percent of their calls in 30 seconds or less.
The call center expects to continue adding practices, and has a list of about 70 looking to be added in the coming year.
The center is open Monday – Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The number to call to schedule an appointment is 1-888-321-Docs.
