Vaccine Management Business Improvement Project

GAC Contact Center Planning Workgroup Conference Call

February 5, 2009, 1:00 pm -- 2:00 pm ET

**CDC Attendees:** Julie Orta, Brad Prescott, Joe McDowell

**Grantees: California:** Maria Volk, Claudia Alguiluz

**Michigan:** Terri Adams

**New Jersey: A**ngela Sorrells

**New York City:** Margaret Foulise, Mike Hansen

**New York State:** Susan Flavin

**Oklahoma:** Dorothy Cox, Paula Boatner

**Texas:** Maribeth Bartz

**Washington**: Mike Bin

**Wisconsin**: Dan Hopfensperger

**Booz Allen Hamilton:** Tim Nolan, James Moore, Darragh Wright, Erin
Grizzle

**McKing Consulting:** Barbara Laymon, Carolyn Johnson

**Public Health Informatics Institute:** Therese Hoyle

**Absent members:** **Arizona**: Kathy Fredrickson

**Oklahoma:** Don Blose

**New York City:** Amy Metroka

**Texas:** Betty Barta

**Washington**: Jan Hicks-Thomson, Chris Halsell

## Highlights OF THE DISCUSSION:

-   **Announcements**

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-   Welcome Oklahoma and Wisconsin

-   Jan 13^th^ meeting minutes were approved; motion from NYC, second
    from MI

-   Funds management questions are not in scope for the contact center.
    The contact center will answer calls regarding system usage
    (technical support) and provider order/delivery related questions
    (e.g., status of order, problem with shipment); if a provider has
    questions regarding funds management, they will contact the grantee.
    If a grantee has a question regarding the spend plan or funds
    management, the grantee will continue to contact the assigned RA&M
    monitor at CDC.

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-   **Review of "GAC Contact Center Data Gathering Summary" Document**

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-   Thank you for your responses. CDC received a tremendous amount of
    information that is illustrated in the summary document. Please
    note: the document is a synthesis of raw data, highlighting the most
    common themes.

-   Detail regarding the "Types and Priorities of Questions Received":

-   The largest burden on the grantees is determining the status of
    provider orders. Researching the order status requires significant
    time/effort to review the shipping log, contact McKesson, determine
    where the order is located, determine if the order was a split
    shipment, etc. Grantees voiced they would like for the contact
    center to handle order status calls.

-   Note of clarification, "order status" questions refer to all
    questions pertaining to post-approval orders (e.g., when will flu
    vaccine arrive, where is order currently); any questions regarding
    pre-approval orders may still need to be directed to the grantee
    (e.g., can I order again, how much vaccine is available, how do I
    change my profile?) particularly if the providers are using an IIS
    to order.

-   MI expressed concern because they will be ordering through an IIS
    and several order status questions would still be important for the
    grantee to answer; further information/detail will be identified
    once the system's order statuses have been defined; GAC would like
    to review the order statuses. MI stated that it would be helpful if
    the workgroup had a better understanding of what VTrckS will offer
    and how much information will be visible to users.

-   Overall, researching a provider's order status should become easier
    with VTrckS implementation. VTrckS will provide visibility into
    order statuses via shipper order tracking information (e.g., FedEx)
    and more timely order status updates (e.g., order held at grantee,
    order at distributor).

-   The contact center will provide assistance to providers regarding
    how to find order status information.

-   Need to consider that functional questions may easily turn into
    technical questions (e.g., a provider calls because they cannot see
    their order, if the grantee/contact center can see the order they
    will need to troubleshoot why provider cannot see order). The
    contact center may not be answering inventory level questions but
    they may need to be prepared to answer technical questions regarding
    the "ending inventory on hand" entry process.

-   Detail regarding the "Qualitative Experience" section:

-   The qualitative information that you provided will serve as
    guideposts as we further develop the contact center.

-   Detail regarding the "Quantitative Experience" section:

-   The quantitative information provided in this section will help us
    size the contact center (e.g., staffing).

-   Clarified that the data provided in this section only included the
    volume based on the survey's questions, not all types of calls
    (e.g., grantees excluded IIS call volume).

-   Expectation that the contact center will be able to answer calls
    live without having to rely on voicemail capabilities

-   **Point of clarification about VFC FA Operations funding:** We do
    not anticipate any funding reductions in the VFC Operations funding
    amount based on funding decisions made by OMB this past December.
    However, grantees should anticipate reduced VFC Ordering funding in
    subsequent years. The VFC ordering funding was increased temporarily
    by OMB to support grantees' burden of provider vaccine order entry
    under centralized distribution. VFC ordering funds will decrease in
    the future as VTrckS is implemented in provider offices for direct
    order entry. In addition, the proposed VMBIP contact center and its
    implementation will not have a direct impact on any grantee VFC FA
    funding awards. The contact center funding is provided directly by
    OMB to CDC to support this new activity. We hope this information
    helps clarify any questions raised during the call.

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-   **Primary Point of Contact for McKesson Specialty Customer Care**

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-   For our next call on February 26, please be prepared to discuss:

-   For the types of situations that currently require grantees to
    contact McKesson, what are the types of questions/issues/situations
    that you still want to be the PPOC to call McKesson customer care
    after the contact center is in operation?

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-   **Provider IT Support**

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-   CDC would like to get a sense of providers' technical skills.
    Comments from the grantees as follows:

-   Provider technical skills vary widely. Additionally, even if a
    provider is technically literate, they may have limited technical
    resources (e.g., materials take a long time to download, experience
    browser compatibility issues)

-   Due to high turnover and limited use of the system, grantees often
    have to perform significant retraining

-   Grantee/provider detail:

-   Most NYC providers are trained on a basic level; NYC removed paper
    forms and all providers use registry; and often conducted
    individual, hands-on site visits to train providers

-   NJ providers have average level of competency due to required
    electronic billing roll-out across the state

-   TX providers have required significant hands-on, elementary training
    to supplement web based training; TX provides technical support to a
    certain level but will eventually direct providers back to their IT
    personnel

-   MI has experienced issues with providers opening electronic docs,
    updating and returning docs appropriately; retrain frequently as a
    result of turnover

-   CA experienced challenges regarding IT vocabulary (e.g., browsers,
    URL addresses); proved difficult for providers to enter website into
    address bar (a long website address can be challenging for providers
    -- expect VTrckS URL to be simple e.g., www.vtrcks.cdc.gov); they do
    have certification online

-   For our next call on February 26, please be prepared to discuss: how
    many of you provide technical "hand holding" support for your
    providers? To what level or extent?

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-   **Next Steps**

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-   Next meeting is Thursday, February 26^th^ from 1:00 -- 2:30 PM ET

-   The next meeting's topics will include reviewing technical and
    ordering support; by COB February 20, we will send you the activity
    matrix. Please review it in advance of the call; however, you do not
    need to complete and submit feedback on the activity matrix in
    advance of the call.

-   Attached please find a spreadsheet for you to record your responses
    to the following questions:

-   For the types of situations that currently require grantees to
    contact McKesson, what are the types of questions/issues/situations
    that you still want to be the PPOC to call McKesson customer care?

-   How many of you provide "hand holding" IT support for your
    providers? To what level or extent?

-   What specifically are the types of calls received? How are they
    handled? What are the different categories of support needed?

-   **By COB February 24, please submit your responses to Julie Orta,
    Tim Nolan, James Moore, Joe McDowell, and Brad Prescott, and cc your
    POB project officer.**

-   Note: NJ will not be on the next call due to a technical assistance
    site visit.

-   Note: Subsequent to the call we were notified that Arizona will no
    longer be participating in the Contact Center Planning Workgroup.

This document can be found on the CDC website at:

<http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vmbip/downloads/vtrcks-min/gac-ccpw-min-feb09.doc>